Delhi Chief Minister and chairman of the board, Sahib Singh, said this while addressing the media here today on the first day of assuming the chairmanship.The board will also tap the demand for bottled water in the Capital by distributing its own brand of inexpensively priced mineral water within three months. While the bottling, packaging and distribution of water would be in private hands, the water board would enforce strict monitoring and quality control through testing at its laboratories, the chief minister said.

``In a field which is totally dominated by private producers, the board would sell its bottled water at a cost which would be one-fourth of the competitors,'' he said. Singh also listened to the complaints of the general public concerning water supply. He will personally listen to the public's complaints every Wednesday and will also sit at the office of the Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) at ITO once a week.

The Chief Minister said that the upcoming colonies like Rohini and Pappankalan will have two dedicated water supply channels to supply raw and treated water respectively. The supply of raw water will begin from this year. To avoid the line losses, South Delhi will be supplied only raw water, which will be treated in the region itself.

Listing other measures to solve the water crisis, he said action will be initiated against those who install booster pumps. He assured that the board would take all steps to make water available during the long and hot summer. The water scarce areas had been identified and water tankers would be available in these areas round-the-clock, he added. Some 500 water tankers would be ready for deployment by the first week of May.

The control rooms for receiving complaints would work 24 hours in a day and ``flying squads'' would be set up to immediately plug leakages in the supply system. Work on four more underground reservoirs/booster pumping stations has been started and these would be commissioned within the next few days, he said.

Also, about 175 tubewells have been commissioned in the water scarce areas and 50 more tubewells and 100 deep bore hand-pumps would be installed during the summer months.