Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari took a review meeting in New Delhi yesterday of Sewerage Infrastructure Projects under the Namami Gange Programme in the six states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Delhi.
Addressing the meeting, Shri Gadkari said, “All the pending projects should take off by December 2018. Expressing his displeasure over the slow progress of some of the projects the Minister said delay in file work and tendering process will not be tolerated. He said there is a general perception that nothing is being done in Namami Gange.”
Loopholes and reasons for delay in the entire process of preparing DPRs, payments to contractors and finalization of tenders were widely discussed and remedies were suggested in the meeting. The Minister was of the opinion that innovative methods and latest technology should be used for cleaning not only Ganga but its tributaries like Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Ramganga, Kali, and Hindon also. “Unless and until these rivers are also cleaned, we cannot fulfil the dream of ‘Nirmal & Aviral Ganga’,” the Minister added.
Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Dr Satya Pal Singh, Secretary of the Ministry Dr Amarjit Singh, senior officials of the National Mission for Clean Ganga and all the six states/UTs were also present in the meeting.
A total of 97 towns are situated along main stem of River Ganga. Necessary sewerage management interventions have been taken up in 55 towns requiring no further interventions. Out of these, 10 towns with a total sewage generation of 1,622 Mld contribute almost 63% of total sewage (2,593 Mld) discharge from these 97 towns to river Ganga.
With all the projects undertaken till date, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have been covered with respect to sewage from all its towns. Three towns, namely Mugal Sarai (UP), Chapra (Bihar) and Danapur (Bihar) remain where sewerage interventions are yet to be taken. Projects for two towns, namely Behrampur and Nabadwip in West Bengal, are in the pipeline and expected to be taken for approval shortly. The proposed STP capacity for these towns is 15 and 13 Mld, respectively. 11 towns (UK-1, UP-3, BH-3, WB-4) are low-priority towns as the flow being small. In addition to this, another 19 towns in West Bengal are low-priority towns owing to low BOD of the sewage from these towns.
