A desalination plant to make seawater potable is under plan near Gopalpur in Ganjam district.
The Indian Rare Earths limited (IREl) has planned to instal a 5-million-litre-a-day (mld)-capacity plant to meet the industrial and potable drinking water requirements for its Odisha Sands Complex (OSCOM) at Matikhala near Chhatrapur, according to official sources.
The Rs 112.90-crore project is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2019, Rajya Sabha member Renubala Pradhan said, quoting a reply given by Minister in Prime Minister's Office V Narayansamy in Parliament recently.
The Minister said the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) would set up the hybrid seawater desalination plant for the IREl. It would comprise a 4.5-mld seawater reserve osmosis (SWRO) and a 0.5-mld multi-effect distillation (MED) system for producing water.
The OSCOM is currently meeting its water requirement for industrial and drinking water purposes through the Rushikulya river water system at Madhapur near Chhatrapur. The urban water supply department is supplying around 1.1 mld (0.4 mld for drinking water and 0.7 mld for industrial purpose) to the IREl unit, said official sources.
Pradhan has urged the IREl authorities to enhance the capacity of its proposed desalination plant and supply potable water to some more areas including Chhatrapur town and some parts of Brahmapur under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.