A full time dedicated team from all the seven IITs will come together to prepare the Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP). "They will prepare actual operational plan on various aspects," Jairam Ramesh, the environment minister said. 

The intent behind bringing in the IITs is to use the 'best technical talent available in India', as well as training a new generation of experts and scholars in the field of water resource management, said Ramesh, speaking in the capital on Tuesday. The preparation expected to cost around Rs 15 crore.

The main objectives of the plan are to ensure a continuous flow (aviral dhaara) and clean water (nirmal dhaara), along with maintaining connectivity, and ensuring space for the river to function as an ecological entity.The plan is also visualised as contributing to global projects of cleaning up water sources.

The timeframe for the IITs to prepare the first phase of the plan is 12-18 months, said Ramesh. Meanwhile, the consortium will keep making regular reports on various aspects of managing the Ganga basin. As of now, the process is concentrated on the main stem of the Ganga river, though the tributaries and distributaries will be brought in later, he added.

There will be teams in the IITs which would consist of professors and researchers, coordinated by professor Vinod Tare of IIT Kanpur. Tare said that they were looking at a team of around 100 members, which would eventually be a national team. The input from IITs will be mainly technical, aimed at conducting water inventories at both surface and ground level. The task of maintaining water resources will be carried out through recycling water, abstracting fresh water only on an as-needed basis. "Industries would be encouraged to use recycled water, to bring about a decrease in water demand," he added.

Tare said that there is a need to improve the quality of water in teh river too. He said that we need to find a way where not just natural water but sediment also flow naturally. "We should make sure that at least some part of the river flows unobstructed," he added.

The plan will be implemented by the National Ganga River Basin Management Authority (NGRMA), which is headed by the prime minister and consists of the chief ministers of states. Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said that the plan will be implemented in collaboration with the state governments, the local industries and civil society groups.

Ramesh said that the Pala Maneri and Bhaironghati projects on the river Bhagirathi have been scrapped to ensure the continuous flow of the river. A decision on the Loharinagpala project is expected within a month.

Sibal added that the project is an opportunity to develop intersectoral knowledge of the river basins. He opined that every university should have an environment studies department, to develop sustainable technologies and encourage innovation in the field. He said that the IITs should produce new technologies, to replace the older methods which were no longer effective. "There should be innovation universities on environment as well," Sibal added.

The HRD minister also said that all the national universities should have courses on environment.