Sewerage plants for 118 cities to clean Ganga

The Union Ministry of Urban Development on Wednesday proposed to set up a time-bound Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for establishment and maintenance of Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs) in all the 118 cities and towns located along the river Ganga to check pollution.

The SPV will ensure that demand-supply gap in respect of sewerage treatment in urban areas will be met in line with timeframe for cleaning of the river. The entire cost for setting up the STPs along the river will be borne by the Centre.

The proposal was discussed at a review meeting on “Namami Ganga” at the meeting attended by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharati, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Birendra Singh, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma.

Naidu said that all the six states through which the river passes through will be consulted and taken on board before going ahead with setting up of STPs. As against the sewerage treatment requirement of 3,847 million litres per day (MLD) in all the 118 cities and towns in 2015 and the estimated demand of 4,773 MLD in 2030, the present available capacity is only 879 MLD while another 1,263 MLD capacity is under construction.