Privater Water Tank on Loft

Would also like to know if BMC has any such law to remove the private water storage tanks, if they are not connected to the other taps and have only one outlet. 

Also if it is not correct to store in water storage tanks can we store water in drums.

1.  In Mumbai, BMC provisions for providing 90 liters of Water per person, on the average presumption that there are minimum 4-5 persons residing in unit.  That means about 400-450 litres of water per flat.  For which the BMC grants appropriate permission for the thickness of the water pipe-line (i.e. 1/2" line or 1" line or 1.5" line and so on), based on the above calculation and at the supplied pressure controlled by the BMC hyradulic dept.

2.  Water is supplied to the ground water tank, after which the management may load the water on the over-head tank, from where it is supplied to individual houses for restricted or unrestricted timings.

3.  Individual houses may further store the water at their convience in buckets, drums or overhead loft tanks. If somebody has installed loft-water tanks without permission, then at the most BMC may service notice and levy penalty and/or remove the loft-water tank.

4.  However, to store water on "one" internal overhead loft tanks, a flat owner has to take seperate permission from the BMC, which is easily available for a fee, subject to the stability of the building and that it does not overload the building structure AND subject to the water limitation as mentioned in point no. 1 above.  However if the building is consumng more water than the permissible limit, (determined by the water bill) then such permission for such over-head loft tanks is refused.

Keep Smiling .... Hemant Agarwal

Section 381-A of the BMC Act says that any new well, tank, pond, cistern, or fountain shall

not be dug or constructed without the commissioner's permission. 

Are you referring for permission under the above provision of law or is there also some  other provision of law . 

I have a similar problem as Jignesh Modi. I live in Pune and would like to know if PMC has any rules regarding fitment of loft water tanks in flats, especially in areas where the water supply from PMC is low?

Some residents have installed 3-4 loft tanks which causes inconvenience to other residents. Is this legal?

I have similar problem in mumbai, The loft tank with 225 ltr is installed. The society the pass resolution for not allowed. Now the other members are not allowed & they are forcing me to remove the water tank. once i remove i can not install the same. What to do? is soc can pass resolution to remove earlier installed tank also?

1.  Having a Loft Tank is the flat-owners discretion.

2.  Putting a Loft Tank is illegal, under the BMC Act, since it means drawing & storing more water, then the permitted supply capacity.  This again depends on the bldg's common overhead storage tanks.  IF there is no over-head storgage tank, then the flat-owner may install a loft tank (within prescribed capacity) and pump-up water directly into his loft-tank (since now there is no common overhead storage tanks)

3.  However, Citiing genuine reasons, the flat-owner may apply for special permission to the BMC (Hydraulic dept., & the Building dept) and obtain permission to install a loft tank of a limited capacity, subject to payment of appropriate fees as may be prescribed by BMC.  The BMC may grant or not grant temproary / permanent permission, which would depend on the supply or consumption parameters.

4.  Society has no jurisdiction / role on internal activities or on furniture or on loft-tank or 10x100 liter  water drums,  which is placed inside the owners flat, even if BMC permission is not taken.

Keep Smiling .... Hemant Agarwal

Having a loft tank without permission of BMC is illegal. Also BMC cannot give permission in an arbitrary manner. In most cases they should refuse permission.

It is possible that the members would have bribed the Municipal staff and erected the with permission or with blessings only. So if you make a complaint they will keep quiet.

They will reply if you ask them by an application. But they have 30 days to reply. Within the time they will call the offenders and collect additional bribe showing your RTI application.

Then they will reply confirming the connection but with a false justification, which as a layman you may not understand.

Your first application will be to the concerned PIO. If you are not satisfied there will be another designated officer for appeal. We have a proverb "What is senior to the mouse is the bandicoot".  So if the you apply to the mouse the first appellate authority will be bandicoot. You can imagine his reply.

If you are not satisfied with the reply to the first appeal you can make a second appeal to the concerned Information Commissioner. I do not know what is or who is senior to a bandicoot. But I can narrate my own experience:

I am member in a Society in Mumbai. But I am not a Managing Committee member. One of the members of the Society on the ground floor was using his residential flat as a shop. As change of user without permission of the Managing Committee is not allowed, our Secretary first told the member and then wrote to him to restore the flat as a residence. Though the member did not comply with the Secretaries order, he became cautious and clandestinely applied to the Municipality for registration as a shop. The Secretary got wind of it when an officer in uniform from the Fire Department came to inspect the flat. Immediately I asked the Secretary to inquire with the municipality whether he has applied for change of user and if so, whether he had produced letter of permission from the Society. For the first question the PIO replied in the affirmative but for the second question he replied that permission of the Society was not required. The secretary made his first appeal to the bandicoot. The bandicoot called a meeting of himself, the PIO and the Secretary. The bandicoot showed him a circular and claimed that permission of the Society was not required. The Secretary was "satisfied". But he asked for a copy of the circular and the bandicoot ordered the PIO to furnish a copy on payment of the cost. The Secretary reported this to me. I advised him to get the copy of the circular. In due course when I read the circular, I found that it had nothing to do with question on hand, which was whether permission of the Society was required. A few days later the reply in Marathi from the first appellate officer came. It merely said that at the meeting the Secretary was satisfied and he had the PIO to give a copy of the circular. Can you beat it?

I advised the Secretary to make the second appeal to the Information Commissioner. And do you know who was the Information Commissioner?  The Great infamous Ramanand Tiwari. He categorically justified the Municipal officers and challenged our Secretary to go to court of law. The Secretary asked for his written reply, which he promised. But soon after he was dismissed.

The Secretary got tired by then and did not pursue the matter further. Anyway the Municipal licence was cancelled and the flat was restored to original use.

Why did Jignesh Modi ask the question? He felt that a few members only to have private overhead tanks was unfair to others. He was right. One needs only plain common sense to know this. If one or two members were given permission to have private overhead tanks, what if all the other members also apply for permission? Will the Municipality give permission to others also?

Dear Mr. Modi, you get the information about permission for the existing private overhead tanks from your Society and the Municipality. You also ascertain what justification the members had given. Be sure you and other members of the Society will also be eligible for private overhead tanks. You encourage all other members to apply for overhead tanks first to the Society and then to the Municipality.

Law is actually a science. When some lawyers convert it into an art injustice and disaster will follow.

@ Hemant and MPS Ramani can you state the section ( rule or the clause ) of the BMC act where it mentions putting up a loft tank for piped water supply is illegal .

@ WCP using section 381-A of the BMC act is completely out of context to what the author has asked as you are refering to laws laid out by the britishers which has not be changed as of date .Today we are talking about piped water supply . 

@ Ashok you are at liberty to install 3-4 waters tanks inside your flat in the absence of any regulation that has not yet been laid down for what you do inside your flat . Its better to move with the tide .

There is no hard and fast rule as of date with reference to fitment of loft tanks in your flats in  pune and the society has no right or authority to intimate you for removal of the same as they are neither the governing body for rules as of date which had not yet been laid down by the PMC .

The PMC just states about storage capacity ( Maybe Minimum regulation to be maintained ) and has neither stated the maximum storage that can be maintained. In the absence of a regulation Neither can a complaint  be made since as of date  there has been no amendment  ,they do not even attract penal provisions under IPC section's  nor CRPC sections in order to be fined or imprisioned .

Just a glance at the Rules or i should term it as regulations that have been laid out for storage capacity  as per PMC 

@Hemant Agarwal

Can you provide the acts and sections in which this is covered?

Is it illegal to have a bathtub in 2 BHK flat in PCMC and it someone already has it, is there a procedure to legalise it by paying fine ?

Read ur reply but point no.2 and point no.4 are contradicting each other....

Pls explain whether installing over head water tank inside flat in bathroom is allowed or not