It seems the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is leaving no stone unturned to spend the taxpayer’s money. It will soon spend a whopping Rs 240 crore to install 1.87 lakh mechanical meters in slums across the city. The move comes in the wake of the civic body’s struggle to install automatic meter-reading machines (AMRs). More than 35,000 AMRs are yet to be installed. Though the decision to buy the new meters was taken after last year’s budget, the tenders were invited only recently.

On January 29, mid-day had reported how the civic body is struggling to install, read and maintain the AMR meters as contractors have refused to take readings. The civic body has already imposed a penalty of Rs 3.5 crore on the contractors over the last five years.