New Delhi: Taking the Namami Gange programme a step forward in the new year, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has approved many projects including setting up sewage treatment plants (STP) in Haridwar and Varanasi.


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The NMCG will also deploy trash skimmers for cleaning Ganga surface in six more cities -- Rishikesh and Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Garhmukhteshwar in Uttar Pradesh, Sahibganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata and Nabadwip in West Bengal -- this week onwards.


According to an official statement issued today, the NMCG has approved two separate STPs of 68 MLD and 14 MLD capacities in Haridwar's Jagjeetpur and Sarai respectively at an indicative cost of Rs 135.30 crore under hybrid annuity based PPP model.


Under this model, payments are made on annuity basis to ensure that contractors do not abandon projects midway.


The body has also given in-principle nod for implementation of 50 MLD STP at Ramana in Varanasi at an indicative cost of Rs 120 crore under the same mode.


Meanwhile, the Union Water Resources Ministry has said the urban local bodies will be nodal agencies for monitoring river surface cleaning (RSC) works being carried out using trash skimmers.


The RSC work was introduced last year in Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Mathura-Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh and Patna in Bihar.


This task was performed under the CSR head and in the coming days, more towns will be identified for carrying out similar activities, the statement said.


The ambitious Namami Gange programme was launched as a mission to achieve the target of cleaning river Ganga in an effective manner with the involvement of all stakeholders, especially five major states in the Ganga basin -- 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.