Lok Sabha Question No. 4286 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-08-11
Subject: Desiltation of Ganga River
Ministry: WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANAGA REJUVENATION
Asked by: SUDHEER GUPTA, RAKSHA NIKHIL KHADSE, KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH, GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR, BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO, SUNIL BALIRAM GAIKWAD

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4286

ANSWERED ON 11.08.2016

## DESILTATION OF GANGA RIVER

| 4286.   | SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA       | SHRIMATI RAKSHATAI KHADSE   |
|---------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|
|         | KUNWAR HARIBANSH SINGH   | SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR       |
|         | SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO | DR. SUNIL BALIRAM GAIKWAD   |

Will the Minister of WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to desilt Ganga river, if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  whether  the  Government  has  prepared  a  roadmap  for  desiltation  of  Ganga  river  and  constituted  a committee to prepare guidelines etc. in this regard, if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  whether  the  committee  has  to  establish  difference  between  desilting  and  sand  mining  along  with emphasise on a need for desilting for ecology/e-flow of the river Ganga;
- (d) if so, the time by which the committee is likely to submit its report; and
- (e) whether the Government proposes to take up desilting work in the major dams where the holding capacity of water has reduced to measurable term, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  FOR  WATER  RESOURCES,  RIVER  DEVELOPMENT  AND  GANGA REJUVENATION (DR. SANJEEV KUMAR BALYAN)

(a) Erosion and deposition of silt is a natural process in alluvial rivers and the rivers pick up and drop their  silt  load  as  per  their  regime  condition.    In  2006,  a  Committee  headed  by  Dr  B.K.  Mittal,  former Chairman, Central Water Commission (CWC) had studied the siltation pattern in a few rivers in India and concluded  that  siltation  was  not  pronounced  and  alarming.  The  Committee's  recommendations  inter  alia include that de-silting in general in major rivers is not feasible technically due to several reasons like nonsustainability, non- availability of vast land required for the disposal of dredged material etc.

The  cost  effective  measures  for  removal  of  drainage  congestion  in  specific  reaches  of  rivers  for  channel capacity  improvement  and  navigation  purposes  are,  however,  formulated  and  implemented  by  concerned States / Agencies as per requirement.  No proposal has been received in the Ministry for large scale de-silting of  river  Ganga for the purpose of improving channel capacity. However, the Inland Waterways Authority under  the  Ministry  of  shipping  has  formulated  a  plan  for  development  of  1620  km  reach  of  river  Ganga between Haldiaand Allahabad as National Waterway No.1 envisaging dredging of river Ganga in various reaches to maintain navigable depth.

(b) ,  (c)  &  (d)      In  view  of  the  concerns  by  various  States  about  loss  of  land  and  properties  due  to  river bed/bank erosion and damages due to floods, caused by spilling river water as a result of heavy siltation of river, the Ministry has constituted an Expert Committee on Erosion and Siltation in Rivers (ECESR) under the  chairmanship  of  Director(CWPRS)  Pune,  &  CE(HSO)  to  study  the  problems  of  erosion,  siltation  and requirement  of  desiltation/dredging  of  rivers,  particularly  Ganga  and  Brahmaputra  rivers  and  suggest remedial measures. The Committee will study and review the recommendations of various important expert committees constituted in the past on siltation of rivers and recommend suitable measures of erosion control and  appropriate  combination  of  raising  &  strengthening  of  existing  embankments,  measures  to  control siltation  of  river  beds  and  techno-environmentally  permissible  de-siltation/dredging  of  river  beds  for providing  adequate  waterway  to  safe  passage  of  flows  in  floods.  A  time  frame  of  6  months  has  been indicated for submission of the report by the Committee.

(e) The de-siltation of reservoirs on large scale has not been considered techno-economically viable as it is associated with the problems of disposal of excavated earth and high cost of repeated de-siltation, etc. In order to assist the State Governments in measures of repair, renovation of water bodies, the Government of India is providing central assistance under the Plan Scheme 'Repair, Renovation and Restoration(RRR)'.

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