IIT-Madras to set up desalination plant at Kanyakumari for potable water

Chennai/Kanyakumari: The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Vivekananda Kendra have joined hands to set up a desalination plant in Kanyakumari to provide potable water.

The ministry of earth sciences has sponsored the project with Rs 94.52 lakh. The ground breaking ceremony will take place on October 28.

As several desalination plants use diesel or other fossil fuels to convert salt water into potable water, Professor A. Mani from the mechanical engineering department with research interests in solar energy and desalination at IIT-M, suggested solar multi-effect desalination system at Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari.

“Our desalination plant is capable of producing 10,000 litres of water every day and a litre of water will cost just 66 paise. We will use only solar power to produce drinking water from sea water,” Professor Mani said.

“In our effort to help society we will be installing a desalination plant in our campus in Kanyakumari to provide potable water to the people. We have allocated 2,000 square metres of land for the project. A Trichy based industrialist M.P. Ramaswamy has agreed to provide solar photovoltaic panels, which will power the project,” Hanumantha Rao said to DC on Monday.