Chennais first desalination plant at Minjur to operate partially from December onwards!!
North Chennai residents now have a reason to rejoice!!
Commissioned in the year 2010 at a cost of Rs 600 cr, the desalination plant at Minjur, that was non-functional for nearly a year, would resume operations partially from December. It is known to us that this desalination plant is the first ever desalination plant in Chennai and it catered to about 12 lakh residents in Madhavaram, Tiruvottiyur and Manali zones in north Chennai.
From 2023 onwards, the production from this desalination plant was reduced and the plant became non-operational from November 2024 onwards. The reasons were due to labour strikes and internal issues etc. It must be recalled that the Metro Water terminated its contract with CWDL in September 2024 due to poor performance and non-payment of electricity dues to Tangedco.
For repair work and restart operations etc, work orders have been issued and this was mentioned by the MD of Metro Water Mr. T.G. Vinay. He assured that the desalination plant at Minjur would be operated partially from December onwards.
According to Mr. Vinay the filters in this desalination plant have been replaced totally and once all the repair works gets completed 40 mld of water supply would be sent to the added areas. Some officials from the Metro Water department mentioned that unplanned work by CMRL has led to water supply and sewage leak issues in Chennai. They added that in 2025 alone the pipeline in OMR catering to the added areas in Tambaram was broken 6 times by CMRL.
The residents belonging to the zones like Tiruvottriyur, Madhavaram and Manali are being supplied with drinking water from the Red Hills reservoir through a pipeline to the booster station at Madhavaram since the shutdown of the desal plant at Minjur.
