Hindustan Zinc, a Vedanta Group company, has joined hands with Rajasthan Government to build a sewage treatment plant (STP) in Udaipur with an investment of Rs 170 crore.

A tripartite agreement was signed recently between Hindustan Zinc, Udaipur Municipal Corporation (UMC) and state-government owned Urban Improvement Trust. The 20 million litre per day STP will be on ‘Design Build Own Operate and Transfer’ basis. The treatment plant will treat domestic sewage and not industrial sewage.

Udaipur generates almost 70 million litres of sewage per day, posing a big challenge for UMC. Understanding the gravity of the problem, Hindustan Zinc initiated the project with the Rajasthan government in May, 2010.

The treatment of sewage will generate a large quantity of manure which under the agreement would be sold by UMC. This is likely to generate revenue of about Rs 1 crore per year for the department. The manure will be sold on a fortnightly basis to avoid the problem of storage, said a press release issued by HZL.

Mr Akhilesh Joshi, Chief Executive Officer, Hindustan Zinc, said with an eye on water conservation, the company follows ‘zero discharge’ policy at all its units and have been quite successful in significantly reducing the consumption of water.

Established in 1977, Hindustan Zinc has zinc production capacity of 525,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), 85,000 tpa of lead and 168 tpa of silver in Udaipur. It also operates four mines Rampura Agucha, Sindesar Khurd, Rajpura Dariba and Zawar in Rajasthan.

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