The supply of drinking water will be disrupted in 3 zones from April 30, 9 am to May 1, 9 am due to the maintenance work at the Nemmeli Desalination Plant which processes 110 MLD seawater everyday.
The 100 MLD desalination plant located at Minjur will be undergoing maintenance work from 26 January at 10 am to 28 January at 10 am, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board said on Tuesday.
Another official said Chennai’s water demand stood at 1,400 MLD while the supply was 1,060 MLD. To bridge this gap, it was imperative to identify additional sources. That is why the third desalination project is being carried out in Nemmeli.
The ₹5,000-crore plant with a capacity to treat 400 million litres of water per day is coming up at Perur and is expected to be ready by July 2026.
Meanwhile, work on the third desalination plant of 150 mld capacity coming up on 10.5 acres of land at Nemmeli is apace. Officials said about 60% of the work has been completed so far. Of the 23 treatment units, construction of 18 structures is in progress.
The two zones require 45 million litres per day (MLD) of water, and receive 38 MLD, of which 28 MLD are supplied from Nemmeli desalination plant and 10 MLD from Veeranam, officials said. “In the last six months, the Nemmeli plant was shut for maintenance often.
With the Nemmeli desalination plant shut for maintenance, people in parts of Perungudi and Sholinganallur zones haven’t had water supply for nearly a week. They said they are forced to buy water from private suppliers as the plant is being closed every month.
“Preliminary work for the desalination plant to provide 60 MLD (million litres per day) water daily for 692 rural habitations besides urban areas commenced during the AIADMK rule. But, the project could not be implemented due to the regime change last year,” he said.
AIADMK district secretary and former Law Minister C Ve Shanmugam would lead the agitation at Tindivanam demanding immediate allocation of funds to recommence the project, he said.
Nearly 75.29 million litres of water is being supplied to the southern parts of the city daily now. Though the plant has a capacity to treat 110 mld of seawater, production is restricted to balance more drawal of water from the reservoirs. Water supply has not been stopped as the work is being taken up in phases.
Water supply to parts of south Chennai will be disrupted till Tuesday evening as work has been taken up to repair a damaged pipeline in the 110 mld desalination plant at Nemmeli.
Metrowater’s 400MLD desalination plant at Perur near Nemmeli is yet to materialize.
Tenders seeking to build the plant were called in 2020 but, an RTI reply has revealed, a contractor has not been chosen in the last two years.
The Metrowater board has also not called for fresh tenders. Activists think it could be because the DMK does not want to give the project to contractors identified by the AIADMK government.
The delay has prolonged the wait for water for an estimated 22 lakh people living in southern parts […]
A section of the 200 Feet Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road near Periya Eri caved in on Saturday due to a rupture in a desalination pipe going underneath the bridge.
Highways department officials said there was a rupture in the pipe underneath the radial road and it was fixed within a few hours.
“This caused only a very minor cave-in. We fixed it in a few hours once we got the news on Saturday,” an official said.