The dial-a-water tanker service of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) is ringing in more woes than water to the residents of the twin cities. After booking, one has to wait for four days for delivery of the tanker containing 5,000 litre which costs Rs 250. Inquiries by this correspondent with the water board's call centre for dial-a-tanker water service on 155313 revealed that there were a total of 667 bookings up to 10 am on Friday and a majority of these customers are from Somajiguda, Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills. The staff at the call centre allot token numbers to customers and inquiries revealed that that token numbers 8318 and 8702 were pending since May 26. These two bookings were made on May 26 night but the tanker was not dispatched even up to 10 am on May 30. Inquiries further revealed that one can get the water tanker within 48 hours by paying a little bit of extra. It was also revealed that tanker drivers and other staff are compounding the problem by supplying water on priority to those who are paying them extra money. These are not isolated cases as several "victims" of the dial-a-tanker service said a minimum of 20 calls have to be made to get the tanker. "You have to keep reminding the call centre about your token number and date of booking, almost every day once in three hours until the tanker reaches your home," said Mr S. Bilal, who was given token number 2344. However, Mr Bilal got water in less than 48 hours but he refuses to divulge how. Further inquiries revealed that a few residents take the telephone number of the driver or the staff of the supply point and directly book the tanker with them and pay up to Rs 600 per tanker. A call centre staffer admitted that the demand for water through tankers has gone up tremendously this summer. The problem is more acute in surrounding municipalities where the drinking water supply through pipelines is twice a week. Most of the citizens who can afford the tanker price depend upon this service but for the delay in supply which is causing severe inconvenience. The HMWS&SB managing director, Mr G. Asok Kumar, said: "We have streamlined the entire network and tanker water is being delivered within 24 hours. Yes, there used to be some delay in supply in the first week of April but now the pace of supply has been increased. The number of trips have also increased from 3,600 to over 11,000 trips."