Govt to track water tankers with GPS to end stockpiling

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) will operate 1,111 GPS-enabled water tankers this summer to bridge the demand-supply gap and to rein in the "tanker mafia", chief minister Rekha Gupta said on Sunday.

- Paras Singh

NEW DELHI:

Flagging off these tankers at a ground in Burari, CM Gupta said the technology will help prevent leakages and enable tracking of tanker locations on an IT dashboard at the DJB headquarters.

Rapping the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for alleged lapses in the tanker system, she said: "In the previous government, there was a leakage in the entire system in the name of tanker mafias. Water was sent to the common people, but no one knew where it went. The new government of Delhi is dedicated to providing clean water. Today, 1,111 tankers are being sent; they are GPS-enabled so that they can be tracked. The routes of every tanker can be recorded. People will be able to monitor the location with the help of the tanker app."

To be sure, last year, 961 tankers were deployed by DJB, meaning the number of tankers has been upped by 150 and all of them fit with tracking technology. Delhi generally has a water demand of 1,290 million gallons per day (mgd), of which around 1,000mgd are filled by water treatment plants, tubewells and Ranney wells. Tankers play a key role in areas with short supply.