With an aim to improve services, the Delhi Jal Board on Tuesday decided to induct newly-manufactured water tankers that will have smart cards and GPS devices in eight of its five zones and appointed a private firm as consultant for the project.

At a meeting of the Board chaired by chief minister Sheila Dikshit, it was decided to provide tankers with stainless steel containers which will have capacities of 3 and 9 kilo litres.

Currently, DJB water tankers are supplying water in 8 zones of Delhi through its own fleet and hired tankers numbering around 1000.

"In 5 zones, newly manufactured water tankers will be provided which will have stainless steel containers and will be of 3 kilo litre and 9 kilo litre capacity. M/s DIMS are the consultants engaged for this project," a release from the DJB said.

Each tanker will be provided with a smart card which will be required to be swiped at water filling stations to facilitate check on the quantum of water being supplied and GPS devices will also be mounted on the tankers.

"This will drastically improve services provided by tankers by checking wastage, diversion of water and unreliability of tanker visits," the release said.

The board also gave approval for construction of a 7 million litre underground reservoir and Booster Pumping Station at Shalimar Park in Shahdara at a cost of Rs 10.81 crore.

In order to prevent the leakages of water pipelines and optimize utilisation of available water resources, DJB also decided to replace water lines in the areas of Haiderpur, Prashant Vihar, Delhi Cantonment BPS, Mangolpuri, Meera Bagh and Carriappa Marg at a cost of Rs 18 crore.

In addition, the DJB will also replace pipelines from Haiderpur to Lawrence Road Underground Reservoir.

In the Haiderpur region, DJB has also approved another project for the installation of 3 new pump sets of 15 MGD capacity each at Kirari where an underground reservoir is under construction.

By setting up Water Treatment Plants to treat and recycle the processed waste water, DJB added 37 MGD of additional water to its kitty.

"In order to increase the efficiency of its water treatment facility, DJB has awarded the work of operation and maintenance of the 11 MGD water treatment recycle plant at Wazirabad, for a period of 5 years, at a cost of Rs 9.39 crore," the release said.

The Board also approved setting up of internal water supply distribution network for the Begumpur village, an unauthorized colony in Bawana.