Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd., (MRPL), has begun preparatory work for the State’s first seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant on the 13 acres of land leased out by New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) here. The Trust has provided land on the southern end of its property at Tannirbhavi to MRPL, along with an acre of seafront land on a 30-year lease.
The plant will initially produce 30 million litres per day (MLD) fresh water, expandable up to 70 MLD.
MRPL is set for another expansion and requires more fresh water and the desalination plant is expected to reduce its dependence on the Netravathi.
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The refinery uses about 13 to 14 million gallons per day (MGD) water, including 8 MGD from the Netravathi, 2 MGD in-house recycled water, 4 MGD treated city’s domestic sewage provided by Mangalore Special Economic Zone and rainwater harvested within the premises.
MRPL’s Group General Manager (Corporate Strategy and Projects) M. Sushil Chandra told The Hindu that the global tender for the project is at the fag end of its closure and the selected bidder would have to complete the project within 19 months.
The project will be commissioned by March 2020, he said. Tendering process is being handled by project consultant Fichtner Consulting Engineers (India) Pvt. Ltd., Chennai. Stating the cost of desalinated water would be known only after finalisation of bids, Mr. Chandra said the cost of raw as well as treated water from MSEZ comes to around ₹25,000 per ML.
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Project components
As per the tender documents, MRPL intends to install the plant through a single lump-sum turnkey contract, involving intake and outfall structure along with required pipelines; brackish water reverse osmosis plant; GIS based electrical substation; product water pumping station; product water conveyance to the refinery; single point mooring near shore for pipeline protection and operation and maintenance of the plant by the selected bidder for 10 years.