DJB says new water bills to come in 2 weeks (Times of India 24 June 2012)

NEW DELHI: Delhi Jal Board is expected to start issuing fresh bills towards the end of the month or the first week of July. Billing in the last cycle had been cancelled after the water utility received hundreds of complaints of incorrect bills and DJB had to launch camps across the city to sort out the problem.

However, the new system that is expected to streamline the meter reading and billing system is yet to be implemented. Sources said that the new revenue system is in the final stages of a security audit and will be ready within a week. Handheld meter readers with which bills will be generated on the spot will be procured shortly and pressed into service in the next billing cycle.

"Meter readings are being carried out as per the old system right now and the process is almost complete. Fresh bills will be generated by the end of June or latest by first week of July. We have already missed one cycle and do not want to delay issuing bills any further," said an official.
Under the new revenue system, all billing data is first being uploaded on a central server. DJB revenue staff has been getting computer training since the past few months to familiarize them with the new system. Apart from this, self reading of meters will also become the norm though it will first be implemented only on a trial basis. "Consumers will read their own meters and feed the data into DJB's online system on the basis of which bills will be issued. DJB will verify details once or twice a year. Hand-held meter readers will also be given out to DJB's meter readers with which they would be able to generate bills on the spot. Acquiring these instruments is taking a while but we hope to have them before the next billing cycle," said an official.
DJB started the billing camps on May 19 and has been holding them every Saturday since then. Initially the plan was to hold on to bills till the new system was implemented but since it is taking longer than expected, a decision has been taken to proceed with the new billing cycle.