VA Tech Wabag, a Chennai-based integrated water and wastewater management company with a global presence, has bagged Rs 594-crore contract from Metrowater to set up a wastewater recycling plant in the city.
Wabag has won the contract in partnership with IDE Technologies from the public sector water and sewerage utility. The partners will establish a 45-million litre a day tertiary treatment plant at Koyambedu on the western outskirts of Chennai and lay a 72-km pipeline to the industrial hub of Sriperumbudur and surrounding areas where the water will be used by industries.
The contract covers construction and 15-year operation and maintenance of the recycling plant which will treat the city’s wastewater to drinking water standards. The Engineering-Procurement-Construction component is estimated at ₹396 crore and O&M at ₹198 crore.
The tertiary treatment plant will use sewage from Metrowater’s existing sewage treatment plant which will supply secondary treated sewage-filtered, aerated and disinfected sewage. The new plant will use modern ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis technology to further treat the water.
The 72-km pipeline will carry the water to the industrial hubs in Irrugattukottai, Sriperumbudur and Oragadam, which are hubs of automobile manufacturing and major industries, including multinationals.
This is a project that has been planned for a few years now and has finally taken shape. It is a significant development as it is the first of its kind on a utility scale to recycle wastewater for industrial use. Metrowater sells secondary treated sewage to individual industrial units such as the Chennai Petroleum and Madras Fertilizers which have tertiary treatment plants to recycle the wastewater. This effectively reduces the need for industries to use ground water or fresh water.