Ten Namami Gange projects of Rs 2,000 crore approved

The National Mission for Clean Ganga has approved 10 projects in Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh to the tune of about Rs 2,033 crore. Eight of the 10 projects pertain to sewage infrastructure and treatment, one to river front development and one to Ganga Knowledge Centre. In Bihar, three major sewage infrastructure projects with total estimated cost of Rs 1,461 crore in Barh, Kankarbagh and Digha have been approved. These projects will create additional sewage treatment capacity of 161 MLD (100 MLD in Digha, 50 MLD in Kankarbagh and 11 MLD in Barh). In Kankarbagh and Digha sewerage zones of Patna, presently there is no STP. Under Namami Gange programme creation of 200 MLD sewage treatment capacities has already been sanctioned in remaining four sewerage zones in Patna – Beur, Saidpur, Karmalichak and Pahari. In West Bengal, three projects at an estimated Rs 495.47 crore have been approved. Out of these, two pertain to sewage infrastructure while the third one is for river front development. Pollution abatement and rehabilitation works for river Ganga in Howrah and Tolly’s Nullah (popularly known as Adi Ganga), a tributary of Ganga in Kolkata have been approved with total estimated cost of Rs 492.34 crore. These two projects will create additional sewage treatment capacity of 91 MLD in Kolkata. A DPR for renovation of Boral ferry and Boral bathing ghats in Nabadwip town of West Bengal has also been approved at an estimated Rs 3.13 crore, which would include river bank protection work, construction of waiting rooms, stairs, seating arrangements, etc. In Uttar Pradesh, sewage infrastructure work in Chunar, district Mirzapur, has also been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 27.98 crore under, of which an STP of 2 MLD capacity will be created apart from interception and diversion of drains. The projects in Kankarbagh and Digha in Bihar and Howrah and Kolkata in West Bengal will be taken up under Hybrid Annuity based PPP model, in which 60 per cent of capital cost will be paid to the contractor over a period of 15 years on the basis of his work performance on the achievement of desired norms of treated waste water. A project to establish Ganga Monitoring Centres in five riparian Ganga states has also been approved at an estimated Rs 46.69 crore. The objectives of establishing GMCs are efficient monitoring of wholesomeness of river including pollution levels, flow levels, point and non-point sources of pollution, periodic reporting of monitored parameters to NMCG/SPMG/District Ganga Committee, remedial actions by NMCG on its basis, collation of data sets, etc. Besides, two pilot demonstrative projects of treatment of drains using bioremediation method were approved. The drains which will be treated with this technology are Danapur drain in Patna and Nehru drain in Allahabad at a total estimated cost of Rs 1.63 crore. All projects will be funded 100 per cent by the Central Government.