There were many awesome neighbourhood initiatives which came to us as entries for the Rise High Award 2016. Stories of 2 Apartment Complexes from 2 different cities; how their Association and Residents came together to implement society initiatives, and how ADDA helped them on their way, is presented in this blog.
Sobha Ivory, Pune solves the maintenance problems of their ailing Sewage Treatment Plant
Sobha Ivory is a 140 unit premium Apartment Complex in Pune. Sobha Limited, an esteemed builder had provided them with a world class STP/WTP. However, the Management Committee was facing a big problem in using and maintaining the Sewage Treatment Plant. Sobha Builders had given the yearly contract for maintenance of the STP and its operation to their preferred vendor. However, the quality of the output water was not so good and there were complaints from the residents throughout the year.
The vendor had to be replaced, and the problem faced by the Management Committee was that they were not experts in this field. When the problem was shared with the residents, the Management Committee was lucky to find a resident who had knowledge in designing STPs and WTPs. With the help of this resident, the Management Committee took all design and operation documents from the builder and worked out a plan to optimally use the STP/WTP. Some problems that were faced are as below:
- Bad quality of output water inspite of STP having a state of the art Ultra Filtration and UV Filter.
- Electricity consumption of the plant was over 1 lac rupees per month which was posing a big burden on the maintenance.
The Management Committee worked on the below mentioned plan:
- Scrutinize the detailed blueprints, designs and optimize the STP operation.
- Evaluate a lot of vendors and finally award the operation and maintenance contract to a more competent vendor, though at a bit higher cost.
- Ensure all needed chemicals are used in the operation to ensure a good water output quality.
- Remove unnecessary pumping of intermediate stage water in the various stages. Thereby removing some pumps reducing electricity consumption.
- Disable the Ultra Filtration and UV steps which needed around Rs 25000 worth extra electricity every month. This was done because, after expert evaluation it was found that the output of the STP was only used for flush line and garden. There was no need of the Ultra Filtration and UV steps when the water was only used for such domestic use.
“Though we increased the spending on operation, we are now already seeing some results in reduction of overall operation cost of the STP. Also the output water quality has improved by a great extent. This entire process has taken more than a year and still in progress due to active involvement of our Secretary and the STP/WTP domain expert resident.”, said Mr. Rahul Tantak, Moderator of Sobha Ivory ADDA.
How did ADDA help towards successful implementation of your initiative?
“ADDA helped us in getting views from owners and residents on the solution approach, taking polls, judging the water needs of the society based on the actual number of flats occupied, no. of people living in the society.” added Mr. Rahul Tantak, Moderator of Sobha Ivory ADDA.
Mahaveer Sanctum, Bangalore & Annexe tackles the problem of mounting Electricity Bills
Mahaveer Sanctum and Annexe is a 184 unit premium Apartment Complex in Bangalore. Mounting electricity bills, which were to the tune of ₹130000 every month had the Management Committee worried. They started with doing a survey of the common areas and a feasibility study for initiatives towards optimum utilisation of electricity in these common areas.
“We replaced sodium lights with LEDs, in stages we replaced all the corridor tubes with LEDs. In the parking lot we removed alternate tubes making sure overall visibility is not effected. Equal load sharing across the meters was implemented. There was a lot of hard work & lot of personal time invested by Management Committee members to address the issue.” says, Mr. Vijay Kumar, from Mahaveer Sanctum.
With all these initiatives in place, the electricity bills have come down to around Rs. 80,000 approx. This was a huge saving in terms of money and also from the power they ended up saving. While all these initiatives were going on, it was very important to make the residents aware about the plans. Proper, timely communication to residents was very important as then the residents were also included in decision making and implementing the solutions. Communication was also sent out to the residents regarding optimum use of electricity in their individual apartments.
“Now we stand tall in our locality because of better maintenance of apartment complex.”, adds Mr Vijay.
How did your ADDA portal help towards successful implementation of your initiative?
“With ADDA its very effective to communicate with residents, manage vendors & payments, provide guidance to stakeholders for implementing initiatives.” Mr. Vijay Kumar, Mahaveer Sanctum & Annexe, Bangalore
If you belong to a forward thinking housing society who care for your neighbourhood & want to make it a dream place to live, you need an ADDA!
If your Apartment complex / housing society is still not online on ADDA, you can create one absolutely free on www.apartmentadda.com. Housing Society Software from ADDA is the essential app for every apartment resident and the indispensable tool for every Management Committee / Resident Welfare Association member.
