Mangaluru: A state-of-the-art water disinfection plant with an installed capacity of one million litres per day was inaugurated at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, recently. Sudhir Kumar, managing director of Petronet MHB Ltd and alumnus of the 1989 mechanical engineering batch of NITK, and Prof B Ravi, director of NITK Surathkal, inaugurated the plant. It is designed to treat raw water pumped from tube wells and open wells on the campus, thereby augmenting the water supply from the Mangalore Municipal Corporation.
The water undergoes two stages of filtration, followed by chlorination and ozonation, ensuring the removal of excess iron and waterborne contaminants. The project was funded by Petronet MHB Ltd (a subsidiary of ONGC and HPCL) under its CSR initiative for 2025–26.Sudhir Kumar said that the company is committed to the spirit of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and endeavours to make a long-lasting impact on societal well-being. It was an added honour to undertake the project at NITK, being an alumnus, and he conveyed his gratitude to NITK for accepting Petronet as a CSR partner. He expressed his hope that the initiative will benefit several thousand students, staff and faculty residing on the campus.Director Prof Ravi acknowledged the contribution of Petronet towards NITK’s goal of creating a smart and sustainable campus. He said: “Last year, we created a rainwater harvesting reservoir of about 30 million litres capacity on the north-east side of the campus. This filtration plant will enable us to use its water, as well as the water drawn from other sources on the campus, to meet the shortfall from the city corporation in the summer months.”
