The persistent problem of hard water in Hyderabad forced its two residents to spend months in laboratories to come up with a water softener that is one-tenth the cost of the ones available in the market.

Himayathnagar resident Udai Nadiwade and ECIL-resident Rajesh Saraf have developed D-Cal, a low-cost solution that turns hard water -- water with high levels of calcium and magnesium -- into soft water. Their product which was launched a year back costs just  Rs 3,000 and is in high demand from people in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi NCR region and Maharashtra.

"We had a hard water problem at our home. Saraf, my partner paid Rs 50,000 for a softener plant, and spend a lot of time and money on its maintenance. However, after three months, when he stopped using it, the machine got damaged," Nadiwade told Express.

This was when the two engineers decided to do something about it. Nadiwade said, "We spent a lot of time in the laboratories of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology working on developing something that could help our efforts. After six to eight months of extensive research, we developed a chemical which can treat hard water."

Nadiwade clarifying that their chemical is made from different organic compounds, said, "Traditionally, companies which manufacture softener plants use compounds that remove magnesium and calcium. We instead developed a compound which makes the two elements inactive," he said.

Following successful test runs of the compound, the duo developed the product which Nadiwade said can be used by simply dropping it, with no further maintenance and a year's warranty. "While traditional companies waste 70 per cent of water during the conversion process, we have zero per cent wastage," he said

Nadiwade is expecting a turnover of Rs 30 crore this year and is targeting the Rs 400 crore mark in the next four or five years. He is planning to expand offices in 20 other states.