Central Govt to finance all projects.

National Mission for Clean Ganga has approved eight sewage infrastructure and treatment plant (STP) projects along the Ganga river.

It has also approved one river front development and one for Ganga Knowledge Centre at the 5th meeting of the Executive Committee of National Mission for Clean Ganga.

The 10 projects would cost Rs.2,033 crore. All projects will be funded 100 per cent by the Central Government, said a release from the Public Information Bureau.

In Bihar, three major sewage infrastructure projects, costing about Rs.1,461 crore, will be done at Barh, Kankarbagh and Digha.

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.

The Namami Gange programme has already sanctioned 200 MLD sewage treatment capacities in remaining four sewerage zones in Patna – Beur, Saidpur, Karmalichak and Pahari.

In West Bengal, three projects, costing about Rs.495.47 crore have been approved. Two of these are 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. It would cost Rs.492.34 crore.

These two projects will create additional sewage treatment capacity of 91 MLD in Kolkata.

A detailed project report (DPR) for renovation of Boral ferry and Boral bathing ghats in Nabadwip town of West Bengal has also been approved at an estimated cost of Rs3.13 crore which would include river bank protection work, construction of waiting rooms, stairs, seating arrangements etc.

In Uttar Pradesh, Rs.27.98 crore of sewage infrastructure work in Chunar, district Mirzapur, has also been approved, under which an STP of 2 MLD capacity will be created apart from interception and diversion of drains.

Projects at Kankarbagh and Digha in Bihar and Howrah and Kolkata in West Bengal will be based on Public Private Partnership (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 Rs.46.69 crore project to establish Ganga Monitoring Centres (GMCs)in five riparian Ganga states has also been approved.

The 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 demonstrative projects of treatment of drains using bioremediation method were approved. These are Danapur drain in Patna and Nehru drain in Allahabad, costing Rs.1.63 crore. fii-news.com