The Gujarat government will set up a 100 MLD (Million Litre per day) capacity seawater desalination plant at Jodiya in Jamnagar district, and seven more such plants, with a capacity of 27 crore litres, in Saurashtra-Kutch region for drinking water purposes, state minister Kunwarji Bavaliya informed the State Assembly on 19 July, PTI reported.

The seawater desalination plant at Jodiya, that will be setup under a Public-Private Partnership model through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) called Jodiya Water Desalination Limited, will have the capacity to treat 100 million litres of sea water per day.

The SPV will be a joint venture between India's Essel Infraprojects Limited (EIL) and Spain's Abeinsa Infraestructuras Medio Ambiente, and will invest Rs 750 crore for the plant and Rs 100 crore annually for the recurring costs, Bavaliya said.

The state government, which has provided the company with land to set up the plant, will purchase water at 70 paise per litre for two years, the purchase price rising by 3 per cent annually, said the Minister of State for water supply.

The proposed plant at Jodiya 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.

Seawater desalination plants of 27-crore litre capacity are being planned in Mundra, Mandvi, Dwarka, Porbandar, Sutrapada, Rajula and Ghogha, and tenders have been issued for them by the Gujarat government.

Earlier this week, Infrastructure behemoth Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced that its arm L&T Construction-led joint venture has bagged contract for desalination plant from Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).

The engineering, procurement and construction order will provide desalinated water to Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region in Dahej district.

“The water and effluent treatment business of L&T Construction and Tecton Engineering and Construction LLC, UAE JV have secured a prestigious contract for a 100 MLD desalination plant from Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation,” L&T said in a regulatory filing.

The company did not provide value of the contracts but said the orders fall under “significant” category which ranges between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore as per its classification of contracts.

The project scope includes design, construction, commissioning of sea water intake structure along with pump house, high-density polyethylene pipe conveyance pipeline, raw water storage reservoir, sea water reverse osmosis plant of 100 MLD output, marine outfall system and other associated electrical, mechanical and instrumentation works.

After Tamil Nadu, Gujarat will become the second state in the country to set up desalination plant of this scale.

Minjur desalination plant in Tamil Nadu built on a 60-acre site in Kattupalli, about 35 km north Chennai and inaugurated in July 2010 is the largest desalination plant in India. Minju plant has a capacity of 100 MLD. The second largest plant is in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with a capacity of 96 MLD.