Note: This article is important for TISSNET.
Under the Namami Gange Programme, a contract was recently reached for the development of a 35 MLD (Mega Liters per Day) sewage treatment plant in Maheshtala (a city on the east bank of the River Ganga in West Bengal).
The Hybrid Annuity PPP technique was used to sign the project.
Namami Gange Programme:
- The Namami Gange Programme is an Integrated Conservation Mission that was authorized by the Union Government in June 2014 as a “Flagship Program” to achieve the twin goals of effective pollution abatement and conservation and restoration of the National River Ganga.
- It is run by the Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation.
- The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) and its state counterpart organisations, State Initiative Management Groups, are in charge of implementing the programme (SPMGs).
- The National Ganga Council’s implementation arm is known as NMCG (set in 2016; which replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority – NGRBA).
- It has a corpus of about 288 projects and a centrally supported, non-lapsable corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.
- The program’s key pillars are as follows:
- Sewage Treatment Infrastructure
- River-Front Development
- River-Surface Cleaning
- Biodiversity
- Afforestation
- Public Awareness
- Industrial Effluent Monitoring
- Ganga Gram
The Ganga River System
- The Gangotri Glacier feeds the Bhagirathi, the Ganga’s headwaters, which are joined by the Alaknanda at Devprayag in Uttarakhand.
- The Ganga emerges from the mountains into the lowlands at Haridwar.
- Many Himalayan tributaries join the Ganga, including significant rivers like the Yamuna, Ghaghara, Gandak, and Kosi.