Desalination plants in India: projects, buyers and how foreign firms win

India’s coastal cities depend heavily on monsoon-fed reservoirs and lakes. When the monsoon fails, supply collapses. Desalination gives a city a supply that does not depend on rainfall, and Chennai has shown how far that can go: its desalination plants were expected to supply about 300 million litres a day (MLD) in 2024, out of a city supply of roughly 1,040 to 1,070 MLD, or close to 30% of the total.^[1]

The next wave is larger and spread more widely. Chennai is building a 400 MLD plant at Perur, Mumbai has awarded a 200 MLD plant at Manori that can expand to 400 MLD, and Tamil Nadu’s industrial agency is buying desalinated water for industry at Tuticorin.^[4][6][8]

MLD = million litres per day. Status as reported in the sources listed at the end of this guide.

Manori is also moving: the state coastal authority approved it on 7 April 2026 and the environment ministry gave final coastal clearance on 28 April. Phase 1 is targeted for 2029, with intake and outfall pipes tunnelled under the seabed.^[21][22]

There is no single national buyer. Desalination plants are commissioned by:

• City water utilities, such as the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, which owns the Minjur, Nemmeli and Perur plants.^[1][4]
• Municipal corporations, such as Mumbai’s municipal corporation for Manori.^[6]
• State industrial development agencies, such as Tamil Nadu’s SIPCOT, which buys water for industrial estates.^[8]
• State governments through concessions, as in Gujarat.^[9]

Each buyer runs its own tender, with its own eligibility rules and payment terms. Knowing which buyer has funding, land and political backing for a plant is the first filter for any bidder.

Some of India’s biggest desalination capacity sits inside refineries and power plants, and it is bought privately rather than by public tender:

• Reliance, Jamnagar. First commissioned in 1998 and expanded twice; IDE won the seawater RO expansion announced in 2013.^[23] Wabag won a further ₹430 crore order in 2022 for a 53 MLD plant at the refinery.^[24]
• Nayara Energy, Jamnagar. IDE supplied about 65,000 m³ a day of thermal (multi-effect distillation) capacity across four units commissioned in 2006 and 2012.^[25]
• Tata Power, Mundra. Aquatech won an EPC and operation contract for about 25,200 m³ a day of seawater RO and related treatment at the 4,000 MW plant.^[26]
• Green hydrogen. Electrolysis needs purified water; NTPC is building a 1 tonne-a-day seawater-to-hydrogen plant at Simhadri using desalination driven by waste heat.^[32] Port hydrogen hubs are planning their own desalination units, which makes this a growing source of demand.

For foreign suppliers, industrial buyers often move faster than municipalities, care more about reliability than lowest price and award repeat orders to proven vendors.

For a bidder, the model decides who carries the financing and how secure the payments are. Lender-funded DBO contracts and Hybrid Annuity projects with escrowed payments generally offer stronger payment security than contracts paid from a utility’s own revenue. Read our guide to the Hybrid Annuity Model for how annuity payments work.

Development lenders have funded the largest plants. Germany’s KfW provided ₹700 crore of Nemmeli II’s ₹1,259 crore cost, and Japan’s JICA lent ¥52.6 billion for Perur.^[3][5] Lender funding usually brings international procurement rules and more predictable payment, which makes these packages more open to foreign bidders than purely state-funded tenders.

Most projects fall at roughly ₹8–11 crore per MLD of construction cost. Manori is the outlier, largely because of its tunnelled marine works. Running costs are where desalination differs most from conventional supply: a 2019 Chennai analysis put operating cost at about ₹68 per kilolitre against ₹6–23 for surface water,^[27] and Nemmeli’s life-cycle cost was estimated at about US$0.55 per m³.^[28] Gujarat agreed to pay ₹70 per kilolitre for Jodiya’s water, rising 3% a year.^[29]

Power is the largest operating cost, which is why bidders increasingly pair plants with solar: Gujarat’s regulator lets desalination plants install solar up to 400% of their contract demand.^[31]

The pattern is consistent across the large awards: foreign technology companies team with Indian contractors.

• Abengoa (Befesa) of Spain built and operates Minjur with IVRCL.^[2]
• Metito of the UAE is building Perur in a joint venture with VA Tech Wabag.^[4]
• IDE Technologies of Israel won Manori with GVPR Engineers and Tuticorin with Indian partners.^[6][8]

The partner brings Indian execution capacity, local track record and the ability to meet pre-qualification rules; the foreign firm brings membrane and process technology and long-term operating experience. Three rules shape the team you need:

• Local content. Public buyers give purchase preference to suppliers with at least 50% local content under the Make in India public procurement order.^[11]
• Global tenders. Since 2020, public buyers may not invite global tenders for contracts up to ₹200 crore without special approval. Large desalination plants usually exceed that threshold, but smaller industrial plants may not.^[12]
• Land-border countries. Bidders from countries that share a land border with India must register with a government committee before bidding.^[11]

Our partner search service finds and checks the Indian contractor that completes your bid, and our market-entry guide explains entry vehicles and eligibility in more detail.

• Energy. Power is a large share of a desalination plant’s operating cost; Mumbai’s Manori contract value explicitly includes power for the operating period.^[7]
• Performance over time. Membranes degrade. Chennai’s older Nemmeli plant was producing about 70–80 MLD of its 110 MLD capacity while membranes were replaced in 2024.^[1]
• Projects that stall. Gujarat signed an agreement for a 100 MLD plant at Jodiya in 2018, but works were reported stalled years later.^[9] Check land, approvals and payment security before committing bid costs.
• Environmental scrutiny. New plants have drawn questions from environmental groups over need and brine discharge.^[13]

The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019 lists desalination plants and their intake and outfall facilities as permissible in the intertidal zone, provided they meet environment ministry and pollution board standards.^[30] Works in coastal waters need clearance from the environment ministry on the state coastal authority’s recommendation, and a consent to establish from the state pollution control board where effluent is discharged.^[30]

There is no national standard specific to brine; conditions are set project by project, as with Manori’s long-term brine monitoring.^[21] Bidders should budget for marine studies and allow for clearance to take a year or more: Manori’s tender was floated in December 2023 and its final coastal clearance came in April 2026.^[22]