The National Mission for Clean Ganga has approved river rejuvenation projects worth over Rs 2,700 crore in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The projects include construction of sewerage infrastructure in cities/towns such as Kolkata, Prayagraj, Lucknow, Motihari and Dhanbad among others with special focus on the tributaries of river Ganga.
Besides, the NMCG has also approved scientific exploration of floral diversity and its conservation projects near the Ganga river banks. It’ll be implemented in collaboration with Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Research Institute (PRI) & Patanjali Organic Research Institute (PORI), Haridwar, Uttarakhand.
Among the four states, projects in Dhanbad, Jharkhand will be allocated the highest amount of over Rs 808 crore for pollution abatement in Damodar – an important tributary of Ganga. These projects, including construction of five sewage treatment plants (STPs) of total 192 million liters per day (MLD) capacity, interception & diversion and other works, aim to tap all the drains falling into Damodar from the town, which indirectly pollutes river Ganga.
The approval to these projects in Jharkhand and others in UP, Bihar and West Bengal was given last week by 46th meeting of the executive committee of the NMCG.