The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has launched a series of measures on a war footing to address the prevailing drinking water scarcity in parts of the city, GVMC Commissioner Ketan Garg said in a statement on Thursday.Mr. Garg said the Water Supply Department had introduced the “Dial-A-Tanker” service from Thursday, aimed at making water delivery faster, more transparent and convenient for citizens. He said the service had received an “overwhelming response” on its first day, with approximately 245 tanker bookings registered at the GVMC City Operations Centre (COC) by 7 p.m.The Commissioner said a dedicated online tanker booking facility would soon be made available through the GVMC Citizen Portal, allowing residents to make payments, obtain a booking reference number, and track their request status without visiting a GVMC office.All bookings, he said, would be processed strictly on a First-In, First-Out (FIFO) basis to ensure fairness and equal priority for every applicant.To oversee implementation, Executive Engineers, Deputy Executive Engineers and Assistant Engineers have been deployed for continuous field-level supervision across 11 identified areas of the city. Mr. Garg said the COC had adopted a mapping system to match designated water filling points with corresponding supply locations, aimed at improving the efficiency of tanker deployment.He appealed to citizens to make optimum use of the “Dial-A-Tanker” service, use water judiciously, and extend cooperation to the Corporation during the scarcity. He added that GVMC remained committed to strengthening the city’s water supply system through technology-driven, transparent service delivery. Published - August 06, 2026 11:58 pm IST