Grappling with severe water shortage and pilferage by the “tanker mafia”, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on Tuesday decided to privatise the tanker management system in the city. Tenders for the process was also floated after the decision on the tanker privatisation plan was taken at a board meeting of the DJB, chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. This was the fifth tender over the past one year after the previous ones failed to get favourable response. Last year, Chief Minister Dikshit cleared the project, which proposes to electronically manage the movement and work of water tankers, allowing the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) to handle tankers on behalf of the DJB. In peak summers, the DJB uses at least 1,000 tankers every day, out of which 250 are owned by the state-run water utility and the rest are from private suppliers. Besides supplying water through tankers to colonies in case of emergencies such as pipeline bursts or shortage of supply, the DJB has to provide water tankers at 18,349 delivery points in the city. “The DJB will release money to buy 385 more tankers. These will be operated and maintained by the private operator for the next 10 years,” a DJB official said. The DJB decided to start a public-private partnership for revamping the city’s water management system because it wanted to introduce the technological changes in tankers. These changes include biometric identification of drivers, a GPS system to monitor tanker movement, a flow meter to account for the amount of water taken and supplied, a chlorimeter to ensure quality and an auto-lock system to prevent leakages, an official said. The DIMTS, which is already monitoring the movement of city buses, will replicate the process for tankers. It will bear the basic infrastructure cost for the purpose, while the DJB will make monthly payments on the basis of performance. National Institute of Smart Governance will monitor the expenses. Tracking the movement of tankers would help check water pilferage, a DJB source said.