Industry News
Sewage treatment solutions provider Ion Exchange bets big on Namami Gange
release time : 2017-12-05
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Water treatment solutions provider Ion ExchangeBSE -2.43 % is looking to tap the centre and state government's focus on sewage treatment around River Ganga and few metro cities and expects it to be a major driver for business.
While the Namami Gange project aims to set up sewage treatment plants (STP) under public-private partnership (PPP) model in five states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal from where the river flows to control the discharge of sewage in the river, state governments of Maharashtra, Chennai and Bengaluru among others are also looking to set up STPs.
Ajay Popat, president, Ion Exchange, said, "The Company is closely following the Namami Gange program where nearly 300 STPs would come up in the five states it flows through and another six in Mumbai, tender for which would be out next year. We are also looking at cities like Bengaluru and Chennai."
As per a study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2015, India generated a total of approximately 62,000 million litres per day (MLD) of sewage as against a treatment capacity of approximately 23,000 MLD, a gap of 63%, opening up huge opportunities for companies like Ion Exchange as this untreated water is discharged in local water bodies thereby causing large-scale water and ground contamination.
India expects to add nearly 500-600 STPs across the country over the next two years. "While the country has nearly 800 STPs currently, it requires a minimum of 2,000 STPs to handle the sewage," said Popat.
He was speaking at the launch of INDION, a high purity water purifier for the pharma industry in Hyderabad on Friday. The latest product provides high purity and consistent quality of water in a shorter span of time for companies.
Meanwhile, the company plans to invest Rs 40-50 crore in expanding its resin production capacity, an insoluble substance used in water purification, in Kutch.
Popat said, the industry size for water treatment for pharma units is nearly Rs 400-500 crore where the company is having a market share of over 15%. The company has previously set up two large STPs of 117 million litres per day (MLD) and a 30 MLD for converting sewage water into usable water.
