Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Commissioner Rudresh Ghali ordered Larsen & Toubro to issue water bills immediately after providing consumer connections [1].
The directive aims to stop ongoing revenue losses for the municipal corporation caused by delays in the billing process. This administrative move ensures that the city can recover costs as the 24/7 water supply project expands across the region.
Larsen & Toubro, the agency implementing the water supply project, had been delaying the issuance of bills to consumers [1]. Ghali said on Friday that the gap between providing the service and billing the customer is unsustainable for the city's finances.
Under the current project framework, the agency is responsible for the technical rollout of the water infrastructure. However, the failure to trigger the billing cycle promptly has left the municipal corporation without the expected income from new connections [1].
Ghali said that the billing process must be synchronized with the connection process to avoid any further financial leakage [1]. The municipal corporation expects L&T to streamline its administrative handover so that consumers are billed as soon as they receive water access.
This project is part of a larger effort to modernize the water infrastructure in Hubballi-Dharwad, Karnataka. The transition to a 24/7 supply system requires a robust revenue model to maintain the network, and fund future operations [1].
“Commissioner Rudresh Ghali ordered Larsen & Toubro to issue water bills immediately after providing consumer connections.”
This dispute highlights a common friction point in public-private partnerships where infrastructure deployment outpaces administrative billing systems. For the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, the delay is not merely a clerical error but a fiscal risk that could undermine the long-term sustainability of the 24/7 water project.
