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New Delhi : Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari while addressing a press conference in New Delhi on May 10, 2018, expressed hope that river Ganga would be cleaned up to 70% to 80% by March 2019.
“We hope to clean 70 to 80 percent Ganga by March 2019. It is a general perception that nothing significant is being done under Namami Gange Programme but this is not correct. 251 Gross Polluting Industries (GPI) have been closed and closure directions have been issued to non complying GPIs, stated Gadkari.
The Press conference was also linked to Patna, Varanasi, Lucknow and Kanpur through video. The Minister said real time monitoring of pollutions is being done in 938 industries and altogether 211 main ‘Nallas’ (drains) have been identified which are causing pollution in Ganga and 20 modular STPs are being deployed to treat Nalla water. Regular review meetings with all the states government officials, contractors, consultants are being done and obstacles regarding DPR’s, tendering process, finalisation of design, payment to contractors are being removed for speedy completion of projects, he said, according to a PIB release.
Addressing the press conference, Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti said that almost all the 4,470 villages on the bank of Ganga are now Open Defecation Free (ODF) and now the government is working on the strategy of ODF plus. She said measures like Solid-Liquid waste management, tree plantation, making villages and towns plastic free and awareness programmes are being adopted.
Namami Gange, an integrated Ganga Conservation Mission, is an umbrella programme with the aim to integrate previous, currently ongoing and new projects planned as part of the programme at an indicative cost of Rs 20,000 crore. The programme is to be implemented over a period of five years ending on December 2020. ‘Namami Gange’ approaches Ganga Rejuvenation by consolidating the existing and ongoing efforts and planning for a comprehensive action plan for future.
Under Namami Gange programme, a total of 195 projects have been sanctioned for various activities such as sewage infrastructure, ghats and crematoria development, river front development, river surface cleaning, institutional development, biodiversity conservation, afforestation, rural sanitation, and public participation. Till date 24 projects have been completed which has created 217 MLD STP capacity, rehabilitated 62 MLD STP capacity and 1,879.5 km of sewer network has been laid. Presently, 45 sewage infrastructure projects are under execution.
“One City One Operator” is among some of the new initiatives taken by National Mission for Clean Gangaas part of which STPs in 7 towns (Kanpur, Allahabad, Mathura, Patna, Kolkata, Howrah-Bally, Bhagalpur) are being integrated and tendered with Hybrid Annuity based projects.
For River Front Development, works at 152 ghats and 54 crematoria are in progress and expected to be completed by 2018 at an estimated cost of Rs 683.32 crore. Patna River Front Development project worth Rs 254.52 crore is at an advanced stage of completion (more than 85% work done). Under this, 20 ghats and 6.6 km of promenade are being developed among other services that include toilets, bathrooms, changing rooms etc. Pathri ghat in Patna, which was developed under Namami Gange programme, won 2A Asia Architecture Award 2016.