Essel Projects to set up Rs 700-cr desalination plant in Gujarat

The Gujarat government on Saturday announced the setting up of State's largest desalination plant at Jamnagar with daily capacity to treat 100 million litres per day (MLD) of sea water.

An agreement is signed between Gujarat Water Infrastructure Limited and Essel Infraprojects Limited for the Rs 700-crore project to be developed under Public Private Partnership (PPP). Chief Minister Vijay Rupani termed it a historical development, which will make drought a matter of history for the State.

"With use of this technology, drought will become a history and the next generation wouldn't listen the word 'drought'," he said after signing of the agreement. The plant, to be ready in 30 months will be made operational by 2021-22. Currently, the sea water on the Gujarat coast has total dissolve salt (TDS) level of 35,000 PPM to 60,000 PPM.

The proposed plant at Jodiya in Jamnagar district, will use reverse osmosis technology to process the salt water. After de-mineralisation, the water will be processed for mineralisation by enriching of calcium and magnesium. This will produce potable water with less than 500 TDS.

Essel Infraprojects will use Spanish technology from Abengoa for the project. The financial and structural responsibility rests on the implementing agency, hence there will be no financial burden for the project on the State government. The concession period for the project is 25 years.

The Chief Minister further stated that after Tamil Nadu, Gujarat becomes the second state in the country to set up desalination plant of this scale. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to lay the foundation stone for the project in coming days. The State government is also proposing to set up similar desalination plants on other coastal districts of Porbandar, Drawka, Veraval and Ghogha in Bhavnagar. Techno-economical study as well as feasibility study and site survey will be conducted for the same.