The Haryana government has announced a complete waiver of road cutting charges for water and sewer connections for the next five years, effective from October 1. The notification was issued by Vikas Gupta, Commissioner and Secretary of the Urban Local Bodies Department.
The move is expected to benefit hundreds of thousands of property owners in both urban and rural areas, including Gurugram. Within the Municipal Corporation Gurugram limits, there are currently 1,84,000 regular water connections, while the city has over 7,00,000 properties. Surveys indicate that many residents are using illegal connections, leading to losses of crores of rupees every month for the corporation.
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Under the new policy, consumers have two options:
1. Install a water meter and pay only a Rs 1,000 water connection fee, a Rs 500 sewer fee, and tariff-based bills, with no road cutting charge.
2. For consumers without meters, the road cutting charge will still apply in addition to tariff rates.
The corporation currently owes the GMDA Rs 165 crore. With a population of four million, 1,84,000 regular connections are insufficient, and the absence of meters on most connections has resulted in water wastage and a growing revenue deficit. A uniform fee policy has been sent to the department to address the deficit and improve transparency.
Chief Engineer Vijay Dhaka stated that the road cutting charge will be abolished from October 1 and urged residents to regularise their illegal connections promptly to support better water management in the city.