Nemmeli’s Water Supply Augmented by One More Desalination Plant

Taking into account Chennai’s increasing requirement for drinking water, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa announced setting up of another desalination plant at Nemmeli at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore to augment the city’s water supply by additional 150 million litres.

The plant will come up on about 10.50 acres lying vacant adjacent to the existing desalination plant in Nemmeli on East Coast Road. Making a suo motu statement in the Assembly on Tuesday, Ms Jayalalithaa said the new plant would benefit over 6.46 lakh people in the southern areas of the city, which have recently been brought under the ambit of the Chennai corporation.

Alandur, Perungudi, Kottivakkam, Puzhuth­ivakkam, Pallik­ar­anai, Madipakkam, Sholingan­allur, Karapakkam, Nee­la­n­garai, Injambakkam, Chemme­ncherry, Utha­ndi, Okkiyam-Thurai­pakkam and other southern areas of Chennai will be covered by the proposed plant at Nemmeli.

Her government had implemented the New Veeranam scheme in 2004 to address the drinking water needs of the city and during her previous regime steps were taken to set up a desalination plant with 100 million liters capacity at Minjur. “In line with this, a new desalination plant will be set up near the existing plant at Nemmeli,” she added. Another desalination plant with 200 million liters capacity will be established at Patti­pulam in the next four years. The plant can be expanded up to 400 million liters later.