Our Parliamentary Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Government has identified nine sites in Lakshadweep for setting up of desalination plants.

The plant would be set up by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous body of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Ministry of Earth Sciences, Prithviraj Chavan  in a written reply to a question by  Hamdullah Sayeed in Lok Sabha on Wednesday also said that the desalination technology has been indigenously designed, developed and demonstrated   for conversion of sea water into potable water based on Low Temperature Thermal Desalination System (LTTD).

So far one plant was commissioned in Kavaratti, Lakshadweep in May 2005.  The work has been underway for setting up 3 more LTTD desalination plants one each in Agatti, Minicoy and Andrott. The remaining 5 islands viz., Chetlat, Kadmat, Kiltan, Kalpeni, and Amini   will be taken up after successful commissioning of the first set of 3 plants through public-private partnership. The production capacity of freshwater for each of the proposed plant is one lakh litre per day.

 The funds to a tune of Rs. 26.60 crores have been allocated for 3 islands Agatti, Minicoy and Andrott whereas an allocation of Rs 32.68 crores has been made for the remaining 5 islands Chetlat, Kadmat, Kiltan, Kalpeni, and Amini.