The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has instituted a round-the-clock effective Customer Grievance Redressal system employing technology and face-to-face meetings to cover requests for service, complaints and payments to be more transparent, accountable and responsive to its customers.




Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu, and is located on the Coromandel coast of the Bay of Bengal. It has an estimated population of 7.5 million (2007) within an area of around 181 sq. km. The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) was constituted under the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Act in 1978 to address the city's growing needs, and for the planned development and appropriate regulation of water supply and sewerage services in the city.
The CMWSSB provides high-quality water and the safe disposal of sewage and waste-water, catering to more than 7.5 million citizens of Chennai city. However, the systems and procedures in the organisation were not streamlined, and transparency and accountability were very low. The redressal system also had many weaknesses, such as manual complaint registration (which is time consuming), improper communication and allocation of work to field staff, and an ineffective management information system (MIS). Moreover, there was no proper mechanism for updating and verifying the status of complaints at the head, area and depot offices, and automated escalation of complaints did not exist. Manual allocation of work was being done to field staff by means of preparation of work allocation slips, MIS reports were being manually generated as well, resulting in duplication of work.

To streamline processes and to establish user-friendly systems, the board established an effective grievance-redressal mechanism, which included the re-organisation of a 24-hour Complaint Cell, the constitution of a Grievance Cell, the introduction of a Complaint Monitoring System (CMS), and the provision of computer terminals.
To obtain feedback from consumers and to identify areas of improvement, CMWSSB conducted a survey of 4,500 consumers on service levels provided by the board. The Complaint Cell was equipped with facilities such as computer terminals for registration of complaints, three telephone lines with hunting facility, mechanisms for immediate processing of complaints, and cell phone connections to inform the officer concerned.

A Grievance Cell was made functional to register complaints/grievances on activities related to water and sewerage services. Complaints were immediately forwarded to the department concerned, and were closely monitored and reviewed by senior officials. Information and Facilitation Counters (IFCs) were made functional at the head office and at all 10 Area Offices, to assist and guide consumers in lodging complaints relating to services like application forms, new assessment, name/address change, water tax and charges, etc. Brochures, pamphlets, citizen charters, etc., were made available at IFCs free of cost.

An adept Complaint Monitoring System (CMS), based on Oracle 11i Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), was introduced for the speedy redressal of complaints. This facility allows the consumer to lodge a complaint at any board office, communicates the complaint in less than three minutes to persons/departments concerned, establishes the maximum time limit for redressal given in citizen charters, escalates complaints if not redressed in the stipulated time to senior officers, and allows officials to review the status of complaints at any location at any point of time. Along with CMS, the board also introduced a Complaint Monitoring Software to keep track of complaints and their respective recurrences.

Public grievance-redressal / open-house meetings were conducted at all area offices at fixed dates and times. Participants includes voluntary organisations, consumer action groups, resident association representatives and others. A Superintending Engineer was posted as the Presiding Officer, and the date and time of open-house meetings were widely disclosed through local newspapers. In order to become more transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly in its functions and policy decisions, the board published the Citizen Charter and Citizen Guide, clearly stating the standards of services. The board has launched a website with a facility for payment of water charges and lodging of complaints online.
This new system includes a 24-hour complaint cell with a facility for online/email complaints, which enables speedy redressal, as well as the tracking of statuses of complaints. Open-house meetings enabled the board to tackle pending cases, which in turn led to revenue improvements. Launching of the website enabled payment of water charges and lodging of customer complaints online.

The automated escalation of complaints to senior officials has enhanced accountability to consumers, enabled senior officials to monitor the redressal system effectively and resulted in better tracking of customers' complaints. The 20% increase in revenue collection in the year 2007–08 may be attributed to the introduction of customer centres. The institutionalised grievance redressal system has improved transparency and accountability, and has resulted in greater consumer satisfaction. It has also reduced duplication of work.
With relatively low investment, the initiative has achieved increased customer satisfaction and increased revenue. A variety of interventions, ranging from applications to citizens' charters, information and facilitation centres etc., contribute to the efficacy and sustainability of the grievance-redressal system.

For further details, contact:

Mr. Shiv Das Meena, IAS
Managing Director
Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board (CMWSSB)
No.1, Pumping Station Road, Chintadripet
Chennai 600 002


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