An international consortium, consisting of two Japanese multinational companies (MNCs), Hitachi and Itochu, and a Singaporean enterprise, Hyflux, a leading firm in water management projects, will set up a major desalination plant at Dahej at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore.
The desalination plant’s capacity would be 75 million gallons per day (MGD), senior government officials told TOI on Wednesday.
Earlier, industries minister Saurabh Patel informed the state assembly, “A major consortium will be signing up an agreement with the state government on March 22 to set up the biggest desalination plant of Asia. To be set up in the Dahej special economic zone (SEZ), it will also provide water to the whole of industrial area of the region.”
The minister suggested, the state government decided to go in for the desalination option after it found that it would not be possible to provide enough water to industry from Narmada. “The Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), which is promoting the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) in Dahej, wanted Narmada waters to be provided for the industries to be set up there. However, we have refused,” he declared.
Significantly, the minister’s announcement came even as the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) tied up a few weeks ago with the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd(SSNNL) to lay down a 128-km-long pipeline from the Narmada main canal for supplying 50MGD of water to PCPIR. Tenders were proposed to be floated for laying down the pipeline, and the buzz was the project would be implemented this year only.
It seems the project is going through rough weather. Insiders said officials in the chief minister’s office have raised “serious objection to the project”, calling for details of the project. A top aide of CMNarendra Modi told TOI that if such projects of lifting water from the Narmada canal are taken up, it would create bad precedent. “It would lead to similar demands from other regions of Gujarat for supplying water to other industrial area,” the aide insisted. While the future of the pipeline project is not known, initial estimates suggested it would cost the coffers Rs 450 crore.
PCPIR, which is expected to get an investment of Rs 70,000 crore, today requires around 30MGD water, which is likely to go up to 100MGD once it is completed.
Before going in for the desalination option, the Gujarat government also closely considered using Narmada waters for PCPIR directly from the river, which is planned to be dammed with a 1,400-metre-long weir.
While the construction of the weir, for Rs 2,500 crore, is expected to start in October 2012, officials now believe the waters stored in it may not be available on a permanent basis to the PCPIR as stored Narmada water would be diverted into Gulf of Khambhat via a canal into the proposed Kalpasar reservoir.
