Novel sorbent, chitosan impregnated calcium alginate (Cal-Alg-Chi) bead was developed to sorb uranium from potable water without compromising water quality parameters. The uptake study in batch mode, showed more than 98% sorption of uranium in the concentration range of 0.1–50 lg mL^-1. Cal-Alg-Chi beads, reduced the concentration of uranium below 15 ng mL^-1 from 100 to 450 ng mL^-1 in groundwater collected from effected regions in India. Sorption isotherm followed Langmuir model and maximum sorption capacity was evaluated as 36.04 mg g^-1. The sorption was endothermic with ΔG⁰ value of -9.76 kJ mol^-1 and kinetics followed pseudo-second order rate law.