Drinking water supply sources in Chennai city are monsoon dependent and the city experiences water scarcity frequently. The drinking water demand for Chennai and Chennai Urban Agglomeration has been estimated at 1462 MLD in the year 2016 and 1560 MLD in the year 2019. Together with Eptisa Servicios de Ingeniería (Spain) and TEC International Co.Ltd. (Japan) Tractebel GKW (now GKW Consult) had submitted a propoal for the construction of a 400 MLD capacity Seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant at Perur (south of Chennai). The project has been funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The key components of the proposal were:
- Seawater intake structure, and offshore pipeline to the plant
- Onshore Intake pumping station
- Reverse osmosis desalination plant
- Discharge pipeline through a diffuser array, 750 m offshore
- Product Water Transfer Pipeline to city approx. 60 km;
