NEW DELHI: The Centre has approved `280 crore projects related to sewage treatment plants in Haridwar and Varanasi under Namami Gange programme to clean the holy river.
In Haridwar, approval for 68 MLD sewage treatment plant (STP) and 14 MLD STP have been approved at an indicative cost of `110.30 crore and `25 crore respectively under Hybrid Annuity based PPP mode. In-principle approval for the implementation of 50 MLD sewage treatment plant at Ramana in Varanasi has been given at an indicative cost of `120 crore under Hybrid Annuity-based PPP.
Namami Gange programme was launched as a mission to achieve the target of cleaning river Ganga in an effective manner with the unceasing involvement of all stakeholders, especially five major Ganga basin States - Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
The programme envisages river surface cleaning, sewerage treatment infrastructure, river front development, bio-diversity, afforestation and public awareness.
Trash skimmers for six cities
National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) will introduce trash skimmers for surface cleaning of Ganga in six more cities in the first week of this month.
New cities include Rishikesh, Haridwar, Garh Mukhteshwar,Sahibganj, Kolkata and Navdweep.
Urban Local Bodies will be the nodal agency to monitor this work. State Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) and Collectorate office will be supervising these works under the aegis of NMCG at State and district level respectively. River Surface Cleaning (RSC) work was introduce last year in Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh and Patna in Bihar.
Trash skimmers were deployed at the foregoing locations and tonnes of floating waste was collected and disposed off in a proper manner.
This was performed under the CSR head and proved to be extremely effective. In the coming days, more towns will be identified for carrying out similar activities.