Construction of the largest desalination plant in India will begin in April in a bid to tackle the country's chronic water shortage, according to Spanish engineering company Abengoa.
The €91m ($124m) new Minjur plant in Chennai will have the capacity to remove salt from 100,000m³ of water per day.
Chennai's municipal water board awarded the construction contract to Befesa Infrastructure India and IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects in 2005, according to businessweek.com.
A World Bank report said India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, and its underground aquifers are being depleted at an alarming rate.
Befesa Infrastructure India is a unit of Abengoa, which is based in Seville, Spain, and IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects is a Hyderabad-based construction company.
