Civic body thirsts for 1cr switch to alkaline water in glass bottles
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Ahmedabad: Only alkaline water, please! Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) officials and councillors apparently want to ditch the plain old purified bottled water the corporation currently manufactures at its Kotarpur plant, and upgrade to alkaline water in glass bottles.
This has been made evident from AMC water production department's May 29 tender for the upgrade and modification of the 3,000 LPH (litres per hour) packaged drinking water plant in Kotarpur, setting up a 1,200 BPH glass bottle water packaging plant and its operation and maintenance (production, storage, sale, distribution, logistics) for three years. The tender is for Rs 1 crore. There are also plans to market this alkaline water under AMC's existing drinking water brand, Jal.
Sources in AMC said that a decade ago, officials, dignitaries and councillors at events such as inaugurations, seminars and meetings were served bottled water sourced externally, which cost the corporation Rs 40-50 lakh annually.
To save this cost, AMC set up the plastic bottling plant in Kotarpur, and even launched the Jal brand.
This plan to save citizens' money failed to work as intended. Other private brands still are roped in to supply drinking water, sometimes in glass bottles due to reasons including protocols on serving VVIPs.
This costs the civic body Rs 20 to 25 lakh annually. Sources add that officials and councillors themselves are avoiding AMC's water brand, leading to 200 ml bottles being discontinued.
On April 30 this year, a proposal to spend approximately Rs 1.50 crore annually on tea, snacks, meals and drinking water at govt events in the city was put up for approval. The proposal to award a rate contract for Rs 1 crore annually for tea, snacks, and meal packets at various AMC events was approved, while a proposal to spend Rs 50 lakh annually on bottled water was rejected, with instructions to retender.
Now, AMC is processing the tender, rendering the current bottling plant ineffective.
Caught in its own 'Jal jaal'
Sources in AMC's health department said that a decade ago, as serving bottled water at events cost the civic body Rs 40 to 50 lakh a year, the then municipal commissioner, D Thara, approved a plan to set up a bottling plant for Rs 1.25 crore in Kotarpur. The plant, ready by 2014, remained non-operational for two years and in 2016, was activated under the brand name 'Jal', producing 200 ml, 500 ml, and 1,000 ml water bottles.
These were sold at Amul parlours outside AMC gardens and served at corporation events. In 2019, when the central govt began implementing a phased ban on single-use plastics, the then civic chief, Vijay Nehra banned the 200 ml bottles of 'Jal'. After the responsibility for water arrangements at all AMC events was handed over to its health department, it went back to serving 200ml bottles, procured from private companies, defeating all environmental and cost-saving purposes, the sources said.
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