100 ‘water ATMs’ to spring up in city, more to follow

Amid the growing opposition, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation is floating a tender on Wednesday to establish 100 more water vending machines (water ATMs) across five zones in the city. To meet the increasing demand for drinking water in the city, the civic body selected a Kerala-based company, Dharana Infrastructure Project Private Limited, to establish water vending machines at 30 places a month ago and the work is under way.
“Based on the demand, vending machines will be set up in 100 more places where the footfall is high in the city and a separate tender would be floated to select a suitable contractor under the Public Private Partnership model,” said a corporation official. The number of units may go up based on demand and feedback from public, he said. The tender period would be for five years.

Vending machines would be established at parks, bus stands, major junctions and congested neighbourhoods for the benifit of commuters and travelers as it would be an add-on facility for them, the official said.

The civic body would provide about 250-300 square feet of its land at each identified location to set up the vending machines, purifiers and source of water. The company would take care of the maintenance and operational cost along with the capital expenditure, the official said. Bore wells would be sunk near each location to procure water.

About 1,000 litres of water purified using Reverse Osmosis technique could be stored in the vending machine in an hour and it would be sold at a nominal price, said Eby Thomas, managing director of Dharana Infrastructure Project Private Limited, hinting that the cost of installing a unit is around Rs19 lakh.

“Every 20 litres of water will be sold at Rs7. Besides cash payment, public can use smart cards and recharge it on a regular basis to purchase water,” the sources said. The recharge limit of the card is yet to be fixed. Door delivery of water is also available within the locality on request, he said, hinting that Rs20 would be charged for the facility.

Explaining the involvement of five women entrepreneurs in each plant, he said the women's group would get Rs3 for selling 20 litres of water at the plant and Rs12 when delivered on the door step. The corporation will get Rs1 for every 20 litres of water sold.