JOIN USWorking under the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), a consortium of seven IITs will prepare a management plan for the entire river basin, which will be implemented by the Centre and five states through which the river passes.
“The management plan will be ready in the next 12-18 months at a cost of Rs 15 crore. The IIT consortium will come out with a series of reports after consulting the states,” Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said after his ministry inked an agreement with the Human Resource Development Ministry involving the IITs for the task. HRD minister Kapil Sibal was also present on the occasion.
The IITs would suggest how to implement technology management issues like ensuring power supply to sewage treatment plants in UP and Bihar and find out ways to guarantee entry of all sewage generated by a city to the treatment plant, Vinod Tare, the project’s coordinator from IIT-Kanpur, told Deccan Herald.
Funds sanctioned
Ramesh said that the NGRBA, headed by the Prime Minister, has already sanctioned
Rs 1,400 crore for the Ganga cleaning-up project and more funds would be released as and when the IITians make their plans.
Uttar Pradesh has already received Rs 800 crore whereas Rs 140 crore went to West Bengal for the clean-up projects, which are being designed with a futuristic outlook, unlike the Rs 900-crore Ganga Action Plan initiated by Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s, Ramesh added.