On 1 October 2026, DD News reported that Indian urban local bodies are repositioning used water as a recoverable resource under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) framework, using Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), Water Plus certification and ODF++ protocols to drive reuse in irrigation, industry, horticulture and urban services (DD News).
Key takeaways
- Projects worth ₹11,785 crore have been approved under SBM 2.0 to set up STPs in small cities, adding 4,900 MLD of treatment capacity (DD News).
- Jaipur's 215 MLD Dehlawas STP, built on 22.50 hectares between 2020 and 2023, is the highest-capacity sewage treatment plant in Rajasthan and runs on a fully automated SCADA system using the Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) process (DD News).
- Indore became the first city to receive Water Plus certification, reports that no untreated wastewater flows through its rivers or stormwater drains, and had installed more than 1.25 lakh rainwater harvesting units within four months by 2022 (DD News).
- Surat operates four tertiary treatment plants with a combined installed capacity of 116 MLD and runs a fleet of 170 sewer-cleaning machines, including robotic units (DD News).
- Treated wastewater from these plants is being supplied for industrial applications, lake rejuvenation, agriculture, mass plantation, sewer cleaning, road washing and gardening through dedicated service lines and tanker filling stations (DD News).
What happened
According to the DD News feature, the policy push under SBM-U's Used Water Management approach treats sewage not as a disposal problem but as a recoverable input for urban and industrial use, with Water Plus certification setting the discharge quality bar and ODF++ protocols extending oversight across the full sewage chain including faecal sludge and septage (DD News). Under SBM 2.0, ₹11,785 crore has been approved for STP projects in small cities, expected to deliver 4,900 MLD of new treatment capacity to back large-scale used water management (DD News).
The DD News report profiles three operating models. Jaipur's 215 MLD Dehlawas STP uses a Parshall flume, primary clarifier and SBR treatment basins followed by chlorination; primary sludge thickeners and screw presses handle solids, while treated water feeds a nearby colony for gardening, supplies irrigation and industrial users, and the balance is discharged into the Dravyavati River, with the 22.50-hectare site landscaped with more than 30,000 plants (DD News). Indore, the first Water Plus certified city, runs three centralised and seven decentralised STPs backed by more than 200 kilometres of reuse piping, and had installed over 1.25 lakh rainwater harvesting units across residential and non-residential areas within four months by 2022 (DD News). Surat runs four tertiary plants totalling 116 MLD, supplying treated water for industrial applications, lake rejuvenation, agriculture, mass plantation and sewer cleaning through dedicated lines and tanker stations, supported by 170 sewer-cleaning machines including robotic units (DD News).
The same DD News feature frames the shift as a move towards a circular urban water economy in which cities are expected to develop long-term, city-level reuse plans with clearly defined responsibilities and improved technologies, rather than treating wastewater management as a standalone sanitation exercise (DD News).
Specification read
Reading the reported numbers in buyer units: the 215 MLD Dehlawas plant is a 215,000 m³/day facility, the 116 MLD Surat tertiary cluster is a 116,000 m³/day cluster, and the SBM 2.0 STP programme targets an additional 4,900 MLD, or 4,900,000 m³/day, of treatment capacity across small cities (DD News). Plants at this scale sit in the large municipal segment and require a full treatment train: coarse and fine screening, grit removal, primary clarification, biological treatment, tertiary polishing and disinfection, with sludge handled through thickeners and mechanical dewatering such as screw presses; the Jaipur plant illustrates the biological stage with a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) under full SCADA control, while Surat's tertiary stage is what makes non-potable reuse for industry, lake rejuvenation and gardening feasible (DD News). If your plant is a municipal STP or Municipal utility handling on the order of 100,000–215,000 m³/day with a defined reuse customer base in irrigation, industry, horticulture or lake rejuvenation, this event signals that compliance pressure under Water Plus and ODF++ is now being tied to actual reuse delivery, not just effluent quality, so the Integrated Sewage Treatment train, including Disinfection Equipment for the reuse end-use, becomes a direct procurement line rather than a back-end option. Operators scoping such plants can compare this approach against the related Domestic Sewage Treatment in Madurai: 2026 Buyer & Engineering Guide and the India clears ₹11,785 crore STP programme for small cities, October 2026 brief.
FAQ
What capacity class does the 215 MLD Dehlawas plant represent in m³/day? The DD News report places Dehlawas at 215 MLD, which converts to 215,000 m³/day, making it the largest STP in Rajasthan and a reference point for high-capacity municipal reuse plants in India (DD News).
What is the headline investment figure for the SBM 2.0 STP rollout? DD News reports that ₹11,785 crore has been approved under SBM 2.0 for STP projects in small cities, expected to add 4,900 MLD of treatment capacity (DD News). The sources do not break out per-plant cost or lead time, so buyers will need to request those figures directly during tendering.
Which biological and tertiary process stages are buyers likely to specify on this class of project? The Jaipur plant uses a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) with primary clarification and chlorine-based disinfection, while Surat layers tertiary treatment on top of its 116 MLD of installed capacity to enable industrial, agricultural and lake-rejuvenation reuse (DD News). The supplied sources do not give vendor names, lead times or effluent BOD/COD values, so those inputs must be sought from the relevant tender documents.
