Eight Projects of Rs 700 Cr approved to boost cleaning process of Ganga

NewsBharati    09-Oct-2017
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New Delhi, October 9: To rejuvenate the holy River Ganga and boost cleaning process, National Mission for Clean Ganga has approved eight projects worth Rs 700 crore, out of which four pertain to sewage management in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, three are related to treatment of drains through bio-remediation and one of inventorization and surveillance of river Ganga.

On sewage management front, a project for pollution abatement in river Ganga at Bally in West Bengal has been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 200.07 crore that would include construction of a 40 MLD STP under Hybrid Annuity based PPP model among other works.

Similarly, construction of a 65 MLD STP under Hybrid Annuity model has been approved for Bhagalpur in Bihar at an estimated roject cost of Rs 268.49 crore. In Uttar Pradesh, sewage treatment related works at an estimated cost of Rs 213.62 crore have also been approved that includes construction of two STPs (28 MLD + 05 MLD) in Farrukabad and one 2 MLD STP at Bargadiya drain in Fatehpur. Pollution abatement works for river Ganga like interception, diversion and treatment of sewage in Bithoor have also been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 13.40 crore.

Three projects of treatment of drains using bio-remediation technology have also been given a green signal at an estimated cost of Rs 4.29 crore. These are for Rajapur drain and Digha drain in Patna and Laksar drain in Haridwar.

One project for pollution inventorization, assessment and surveillance on river Ganga has also been approved at an estimated cost of Rs 42.9 crore. Continuation of an ongoing exercise, the project aims to strengthen environmental regulation and water quality monitoring vis-a-vis river Ganga.

Notably, Ganga, the sacred river to Hindus, has been found to be the second-most polluting river in the world, discharging 115,000 tonnes of plastic each year, as per a recent study. The researchers at The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch foundation developing new technologies for ridding the oceans of plastic, found that rivers carry an estimated 1.15-2.41 million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year.