The Jamnagar desalination plant project has received a ₹1,000 crore-plus order from Reliance Industries Limited, with VA Tech Wabag contracted to design and deliver a facility capable of producing up to 302 million litres of water a day after expansion.
VA Tech Wabag said on Tuesday that the order covers the design, engineering, supply, installation, pre-commissioning, commissioning and performance guarantee test run of the desalination plant and an associated remineralisation plant at Jamnagar, Gujarat. The initial desalination capacity will be 8,400 cubic metres an hour, with provision to expand it to 12,600 cubic metres an hour, equivalent to 302 million litres a day.
The project will also include a remineralisation plant with a capacity of 3,000 cubic metres an hour. Remineralisation is used to restore selected minerals to treated water after the desalination process, allowing the water to meet required quality parameters for its intended use.
According to Wabag, the desalination facility will use multiple stages of treatment. These include lamella clarifiers, dissolved air flotation filters, an ultrafiltration system, chemical dosing and backwash systems, followed by seawater reverse osmosis and brackish water reverse osmosis systems.
The scope also includes product-water storage and brine outfall pumping systems. Brine, the concentrated saline stream produced during desalination, must be managed through dedicated outfall infrastructure as part of the plant’s operating system.
The order illustrates the scale at which desalination is being deployed as water infrastructure for large industrial operations. The project’s expandable design provides for an increase from 8,400 cubic metres an hour to 12,600 cubic metres an hour, although the company statement did not provide a commissioning date or a detailed implementation schedule.
S. Natrajan, Vice-President and Head of Sales and Marketing at Wabag, said the order reinforced Reliance Industries’ confidence in the company’s technology and execution record. He said it would strengthen Wabag’s presence in the global desalination market and demonstrate its ability to deliver large-scale, technology-led water infrastructure.
The announcement also influenced market trading in Wabag. Its shares were trading at around ₹1,838.50, up more than 7.7 per cent, at the time of reporting by The Hindu BusinessLine.
The company statement did not disclose further details on the project’s financing structure, construction schedule, final water-use arrangements or the environmental management plan for the brine outfall. The next publicly stated milestones are the delivery and commissioning activities included in Wabag’s order scope, followed by the performance guarantee test run.
