Rs 497 crore cleared for Ganga clean-up project at Varanasi -Governance Now

Rs 497 crore cleared for Ganga clean-up project at Varanasi

Union will provide 85% and UP government will bear 15% of project cost

GN Bureau | June 10, 2010

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) today approved a Rs 497 crore project under Mission Clean Ganga of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) for Varanasi. The project will set up a sewage treatment plant of 140 million liters per day capacity, lay 34 kms of sewers, rehabilitate existing sewerage systems, construct 3 new pumping stations, build community toilet complexes, renovate 26 selected ghats, develop 7 dhobi ghats and build capacity for public participation and awareness.

The central government will provide Rs 428 crore (85%) and the government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) will provide Rs 69 crore (15%) of the project cost. The project will be executed by the UP Jal Nigam and the Varanasi Nagar Nigam over a five year period with the environment ministry monitoring implementation through a tripartite Memorandum of Agreement between the ministry itself, the state government and the urban local body. The Indian government has taken a soft loan of about Rs 550 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project repayable over 40 years at 0.75% interest rate with an initial grace period of 10 years.

Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for environment and forests said that the project is significant since it is the first in a series that will be based on requirements of population in 2025-2030. Normally, such projects are planned keeping existing demand in mind but the NGRBA is looking at future population and formulating sewerage treatment facilities.

The NGRBA is also supporting alternative technology in Varanasi through a local NGO the Sankat Mochan Foundation. Two technologies---advanced integrated wastewater pond system and micro-tunneling for the ghat area—are being experimented with.

Earlier the CCEA had cleared a similar Rs 305 crore project for Allahabad. The NGRBA has so far approved 3 projects amounting to Rs 240 crore in Bihar, Rs 105 crore in West Bengal and Rs 65 crore in Uttarakhand.

Comments

Other News

What the nine Indian Nobel winners have in common

A Touch Of Genius: The Wisdom of India’s Nobel Laureates Edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Aleph Books, Rs 1499, 848 pages

Income Tax dept holds Ghatkopar Outreach on new IT Act

The Income Tax Department organised an outreach programme in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, to raise awareness about the key features of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote taxpayer awareness, simplify compliance, and strengthen a transparent, eff

Making AI work where governance is closest to people

India’s next governance leap may not solely come from digitisation. It will come from making public systems more intelligent, more adaptive, and more responsive to the dynamics at the grassroots. That opportunity is especially significant at the panchayat level, where governance is not an abstract po

Borrowing troubles: How small loans are quietly trapping youth

A silent crisis is playing out in the pocket of young India, not in stock markets or government treasuries, but in smartphones of college students and first-jobbers who clicked on the Apply Now button without reading the small print. A decade ago, to take a loan, you had to do some paperwor

A 19th-century pilgrim’s progress

The Travels of a Sadhu in the Himalayas By Jaladhar Sen (Translated by Somdatta Mandal) Speaking Tiger Books, 259 pages, ₹499.00

India faces critical shortage of skin donors amid rising burn cases

India reports nearly 70 lakh burn injury cases every year, resulting in approximately 1.4 lakh deaths annually. Experts estimate that up to 50% of these lives could be saved with adequate access to skin donations. A significant concern is that around 70% of burn victims fall wi