German funding firm puts third desal plant on fast track
City’s drinking water requirement is 1,100 mld but Metrowater currently supplies only around 530 mld
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-10-07 07:00 GMT
Chennai: Chennai metro water’s plan to install a third desalination plant of 150 million litres a day (MLD) capacity will soon become reality with a four member delegation of the German funding agency, KfW, holding talks on Tuesday with board officials to finalise modalities of funding the project.
The four-member delegation comprising Verena Willand, programme manager, KfW Frankfurt, Anirban Kundu, senior sector specialist, KfW New Delhi, Claus Mertes, technical expert, German DME GmbH, and Mr Haider Abbas, social expert, ERM India, arrived in the city on Tuesday. They visited the Nemmeli desalination plant and the site of the proposed new plant after holding discussions with B. Chandra Mohan, managing director and other officials of the CMWSS Board. An official statement said that the German representatives would have discussions with the Municipal Administration and Water Supply department and finance department officials.
“It is an appraisal mission by the German representatives,” a senior official said. State government has sought 60 per cent of funding from KfW while the rest will be borne by the state.
Construction of the desalination plant will be completed in 30 months time from the date the state awards the contract. Once it is operational, the plant will supply drinking water to at least 9 lakh people in the southern and central localities in Chennai.
These neighbourhoods include Sholinganallur, the IT corridor, industries along OMR and ECR, Velachery, Madipakkam , Ullagaram and Puzhuthivakkam, St Thomas Mount, Medavakkam, Kovilambakkam,, Nanmangalam, Keelkattala, Mylapore and Pallipattu.
At present, the city’s drinking water requirement is 1,100 mld but Metrowater currently supplies only around 530 mld. The city’s four reservoirs, Veeranam lake and agricultural fields provide nearly 330 mld and the remaining is supplied by the two 100 mld desalination plants at Nemmeli and Minjur.