THE PERFECT PARTNERSHIP
BEST PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP HINDUSTAN ZINC, UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
Udaipur, the city of lakes, was in deep trouble with the city’s sewage being dumped into its water bodies. Initial efforts at treating the sewage all failed till Hindustan Zinc Ltd stepped in with a public-private partnership project. In 2014, it launched a 20 MLD sewage treatment plant in which it invested Rs 170 crore in Udaipur. “Hindustan Zinc, along with the Rajasthan government, built this sewage treatment plant (STP). Now, seeing the increasing population and requirement, we are increasing its capacity to 60 MLD. A total of Rs 250 crore expenditure is involved and the enhanced capacity will be able to treat almost 100 per cent of Udaipur’s domestic sewage,” says Sunil Duggal, CEO of Hindustan Zinc.
One-third of the city’s sewage is brought to the plant through pipes laid along the natural gradient traversing the outskirts of Udaipur and located on the banks of the perennial Ayar river, says Roop Singh Sarupria, the STP project head. The sewage is treated at a running cost of Rs 1 lakh a day. As a result of this project, people of the city now have cleaner lakes and cleaner water. The foundation stone of three more STPs with a combined capacity of 40 MLD was laid in June 2017 to treat the rest of the sewage. The construction of 40 MLD capacity STPs will be based on the Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) process and have a provision for re-use of 50 per cent treated water for Udaipur city. In its own projects, Hindustan Zinc has installed effluent treatment plants with reverse osmosis at all smelting locations in a bid to improve the company’s fresh water footprint and also maintain zero discharge status. This STP is a significant step towards care for the environment and zero discharge in the lakes. Still more significantly, it ensures productive usage of treated water.