NOIDA: The Noida Authority has launched a mobile application, called “Noidajal,” which will allow consumers to pay their water bill digitally, officials said.
The app will be available on Android phones from Monday, with officials saying it will be available on the iOS platform for iPhones within the next two weeks. The CEO of the Noida Authority, Ritu Maheshwari, launched the application from the main administrative building in Sector 6, which will serve the city’s 86,000 consumers.
“The Noida Authority has been accepting water bills online since the beginning of 2019. However, with this application, we will provide seamless service for our consumers as we have integrated it with the banking system. Once the consumer pays their water bill, it will be reflected immediately, unlike earlier when it used to take longer,” said Maheshwari. The issuance of water bill no dues certificates will also be available via the app in the future.
Currently, the city has at least 86,000 consumers, including realtors, industrial units, and individual consumers, who have to visit the office multiple times to obtain a water bill no dues certificate. However, with this facility on the app, they will be able to complete the task with ease.
“The application will not only benefit the consumers but will also play a role in revenue collection on time. As of now, only 30 percent of our consumers pay their bills online. We hope that with this application, more and more consumers will start making payments digitally,” said Maheshwari.
The authority wants to collect revenue in a better manner because it spends more money on distribution than annual revenue collections. “We spend around ₹200 crore on maintenance and delivering water to our consumers against our revenue collection of around ₹100 crore. We collected ₹119 crore last year, outperforming previous years. Our revenue collection is increasing every year with digital payments. And with this application, the collection will further increase,” said a Noida authority official.
The authority said it would also put up a list of big defaulters on its website. To begin with, it will make a list of 50 big defaulters available online, so they pay their water bill dues. However, some consumers are not happy with the quality of water supply.
“The Noida Authority must focus on delivering quality water as a priority instead of only focusing on recovery. Even after 40 years, the authority has not delivered the Ganga water supply to all houses,” said NP Singh, the president of the Gautam Budh Nagar district development residents’ welfare association, a citizens umbrella group.
