The Minjur Desalination Plant is a reverse osmosis, water desalination plant at Kattupalli village, a northern suburb of Chennai, India, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal that supplies water to the city of Chennai. Built on a 60-acre site, it is the largest desalination plant in India. Construction works were carried out by the Indian company IVRCL and the Spanish company Abengoa, under the direction of the Project Manager Fernando Portillo Vallés and the Construction Manager Juan Ignacio Jiménez-Velasco, who returned to Europe after the inauguration of the plant to work on renewable energy projects. Originally scheduled to be operational by January 2009, the work on the plant was delayed due to Cyclone Nisha in October 2008, which damaged a portion of the completed marine works and destroyed the cofferdam meant for the installation of transition pipes. The trial runs were completed in June 2010 and the plant was opened in July 2010. Water from the plant will be utilised chiefly for industrial purposes such as the Ennore Port and North Chennai Thermal Power Station. However, during droughts, water from the plant will be supplied to the public, serving an estimated population of 1,000,000. Water scarcity in the city Being a city that depends extensively on ground water, replenished by an average annual rainfall of 1,276 mm, Chennai experiences a chronic water problem. The city receives about 985 Million-Liters-per-Day (MLD) of water from ground and surface water sources, against the demand of 1,200 MLD. Due to an increased usage of groundwater, underground aquifers are being depleted at a rapid rate. By 2031, the demand is expected to increase to about 2,700 MLD. To alleviate the freshwater problems, the state government decided to implement desalination of sea water. Initially, a 100 MLD plant was planned at Minjur, followed by another plant with equal capacity at Nemmeli. A third plant with a capacity of 200 MLD has been planned at Pattipulam, south of Nemmeli to address the overall supply deficit of 400 MLD. Chennai Water Desalination Limited Chennai Water Desalination Ltd. (CWDL) is a special purpose vehicle of IVRCL Infrastructure & Projects Ltd. and Befesa Agua of Spain, created in 2005 to design, build, own and operate the seawater desalination plant for the Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB). In September 2005, the CMWSSB signed a bulk water purchase agreement with CWDL to purchase water from the plant