Govt to initiate entry-level activities to expedite Ganga cleaning

New Delhi: The Centre will initiate many entry-level activities to expedite the process of cleaning of Ganga during January-March next year leading to "visible" results in a "short" time frame.

"With the aim of expediting progress of works under the flagship scheme of Namami Gange, Union Water Resources Ministry is initiating a number of entry-level activities during Jan-March 2016 which will lead to visible results in a short time frame," the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation said in a statement today.

The activities will include repair and modernisation of ghats and crematoria, cleaning of river surface and treatment of directly discharging drains in villages along Ganga.

Meanwhile the Ministry is also targeting creation of sewage treatment infrastructure on priority in all 118 cities and towns on the banks of Ganga.

For this purpose, condition assessment of the existing infrastructure, their capacity utilisation and remaining gap in treatment capacity as also feasibility for new infrastructure will be assessed through a comprehensive study.

After completion of this assessment, the project would be undertaken on public private partnership (PPP) basis in Ganga basin and actual work will be undertaken by eligible firms selected through tendering process, it said.

"These activities will not only be undertaken along Ganga, but the cities and towns on major tributaries namely Yamuna, Ramganga and Kali will also be included," the Ministry said.

To take up these activities "immediately", the Ministry is stated to have roped in leading central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) including Engineers India Ltd, National Buildings Construction Corporation, WAPCOS Ltd, National Projects Construction Corporation Ltd and Engineering Projects India Ltd.

For effective administration of these activities, the Ministry said, it has divided entire length of Ganga in five stretches, coinciding with boundaries of states and allocated them to these CPSUs.

These CPSUs will take up the entry-level activities, the assessment work in their designated stretches and will be responsible for implementation.

"This is expected to quick start the implementation process and facilitate easy scale up of these activities along the length of Ganga," it said.

The Ministry will also rope in third party appraisal agencies from both public and private sectors, state agencies, urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions for robust review of the works, the statement added.