Director of Water Infrastructure — Interim, Urban Utilities

The mandate

Two treatment excursions and repeated supply interruptions triggered municipal penalties under an urban water concession. The infrastructure director resigned after maintenance deferrals and laboratory escalation gaps were confirmed.

The interim must begin within two weeks for twelve months through process remediation and one dry-season peak. An internal utility head will inherit the concession after two independently observed operating reviews.

Handover requires one hundred per cent statutory water-quality compliance for six months, unplanned supply interruption reduced by forty per cent, non-revenue water below twenty-four per cent, and the successor leading one contamination and one drought exercise.

The director may restrict supply zones, reprioritise maintenance and approve emergency work below ₹60 lakh. Tariff changes, capital above ₹3 crore and concession settlements require committee approval; the municipal authority controls statutory notices and approved supply restrictions.

New-city bids, desalination development and corporate sustainability reporting are excluded. The assignment restores the current concession's treatment, network and assurance performance.

Why this seat is open

Treatment and service failures exposed common weaknesses in maintenance, laboratory and escalation governance. Executive departure left the municipality without a credible accountable operator. A finite director will restore compliance and prove the internal head under seasonal and emergency conditions.

What you will own

• Reconstruct treatment excursions across raw-water quality, process control, laboratory and release evidence.
• Decide maintenance and capital priorities using public-health, service and asset-failure consequence.
• Establish independent laboratory escalation and immediate response to out-of-specification results.
• Reduce network loss through district metering, leak prioritisation and verified repair closure.
• Protect dry-season service through source, storage, pressure and equitable restriction plans.
• Certify monthly concession performance with penalties, exceptions and recovery actions disclosed.
• Qualify the internal successor through contamination and drought-response exercises.

Candidate qualifications

• More than twenty-two years in water or wastewater utility operations with concession accountability.
• Led recovery from treatment noncompliance or material urban supply interruption.
• Deep understanding of treatment processes, laboratory assurance, distribution hydraulics and non-revenue water.
• Experience operating under municipal concession penalties and public-health scrutiny.
• Ability to allocate constrained water transparently across service zones during dry conditions.
• Demonstrated development of internal utility leadership through live seasonal and emergency cycles.

Non-negotiables

• Available onsite in Chennai within two weeks and during emergency water-quality events.
• No relationship with laboratory, maintenance or capital contractors under review.
• Will notify and act on out-of-specification results without suppressing adverse evidence.
• Commits to twelve months through the dry-season peak and successor qualification.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest Chennai start and availability for water-quality emergency command.
2. 49 words maximum. Which treatment excursion did you close, and what control prevented recurrence?
3. 49 words maximum. What non-revenue-water reduction did you verify at concession scale?