After the trial run of about two months, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi would inaugurate the Kattupalli Desalination Plant at Minjur near here tomorrow.

According to official sources, the project was originally conceived during the previous AIADMK regime. But, there was delay in launching the project work owing to legal disputes.

After the DMK came to power in 2006, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi directed Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin (he was the Local Administration Minister then) to take steps to execute the project at the earliest as it would provide drinking water to the people of Chennai.

According to Stalin, ‘Though the drinking water scheme was announced during the previous AIADMK regime, Chief Minister Karunanidhi laid foundation for the project in 2008. Water from the plant will be supplied to areas in north Chennai.’

Tenders were floated and the construction work began. But, due to high tide in the sea, the company could not complete the work as per schedule.

Laying of inlet and outlet pipes in the turbulent Bay of Bengal, a big problem for long, was finally sorted out in the fag end of 2009. From then, the project has progressed smoothly and a trial run of the desalination plant was conducted recently.

The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) had given the task of executing the Minjur plant on a DBOOT (design, build, own, operate and transfer) basis to Chennai Water Desalination Limited (CWDL), launched by the Hyderabad-based IVRCL Infrastructures and Projects Ltd as a consortium with Befesa Constuccion Technologia Ambiental Ltd, Spain.

‘If the Chief Minister can be commended for visiting the new Secretariat complex over a 100 times when it was under construction, then his son and deputy deserves the credit for making officials and contractors run the extra mile to hasten work on the desalination plant,’ a higher official said.