Lok Sabha Question No. 263 (STARRED), answered on 2016-08-04
Subject: Foreign Aid for Namami Gange Mission
Ministry: WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANAGA REJUVENATION
Asked by: SUSHMITA DEV, KANWAR SINGH TANWAR

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

## LOK  SABHA

## STARRED  QUESTION  NO. 263 ANSWERED ON 04.08.2016

## FOREIGN AID FOR  NAMAMI  GANGE MISSION

| *263.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          | KUMARI SUSHMITA DEV SHRIKANWAR SINGH TANWAR                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Will the Minister of WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION be pleased to state: (a) the time-frame set for completion of the Namami Gange Mission by the Union Government along with the present status of implementation; | Will the Minister of WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION be pleased to state: (a) the time-frame set for completion of the Namami Gange Mission by the Union Government along with the present status of implementation; |
| ANSWER                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | ANSWER                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| THE MINISTER FOR WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT REJUVENATION (SUSHRIUMA BHARTI)                                                                                                                                                            | AND GANGA                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      |

## Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No.263 to be  answered  on  the  4 th August,  2016  on  'FOREIGN  AID  FOR  NAMAMI  GANGE MISSION' raised by KUMARI SUSHMITA DEV:SHRI KANWAR SINGH TANWAR.

## (a)  The Namami Gange programme is scheduled to be completed by 2020.

The status of the Namami Gange Programme as on 30th June 2016 is given below:

97 projects have been sanctioned under Namami Gange programme in 53 towns at an estimated project  cost  of  Rs  8588.21  Crore.  Out  of  these  12  projects  have  been  sanctioned  exclusively under new components of Namami Gange programme at a sanctioned cost of Rs 351.42 Crore. Apart from above, the other initiatives taken include:

-  The  Government  recently  launched  231  entry  level  and  medium  term    projects  under Namami Gange on 7 th July,  2016.  These  projects  include  Ghat  Development,  Crematoria, setting up of Sewage treatment plants, afforestation etc.
-  'River  Surface  and  Ghat  Cleaning'  programme  using  trash  skimmer  has  been  taken  up initially in 6 cities namely Mathura-Vrindavan, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and New Delhi under the Namami Gange programme.
-  5 central public sector units namely WAPCOS, EIL, NBCC, NPCC, EPIL have been recently engaged to carry out the work on condition Assessment & Feasibility Study and Entry level activities under Namami Gange Programme in their respective river stretches in Uttarakhand, UP,  Bihar,  Jharkhand  and  West  Bengal.  59  towns  have  been  surveyed  so  far  and  27  prefeasibility reports received. The other activities taken up under entry level activities include repair and modernization of Ghats, provision of public amenities, village level drain (VLD) treatment, repair and modernization of crematoria etc. Out of the 1242 ghats, 369 crematoria and 411 VLDs identified so far from the surveys, 191 Ghats and 64 Crematoria have been recommended by ESC till date.
-  Holding  regular  meeting  of  the  National  Ganga  River  Basin  Authority  (NGRBA),  High Level  Task  Force  (HLTF)  and  Empowered  Steering  Committee  (ESC)  to  expedite  the implementation of Namami Gange scheme.
-  The  Government  has  invited  Expression  of  Interest  (EOI)  from  innovative  technology providers for taking up demonstration projects on in-situ treatment of drains discharging into river Ganga.

(b)  The currently ongoing 'Namami Gange Programme' has not received any grant / aid from foreign countries. It is fully funded by Government of India.  However, scheme for cleaning river Ganga, prior to Namami Gange, has availed financial assistance in the form of developmental loans granted by: a) World Bank (WB) amounting to 1 Billion USD and b) Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), amounting to Rs. 496.90 Crore.  Also, several countries have offered technical assistance for  Namami  Gange  Programme.  At  present,  Germany,  has committed  3  Million  Euro  for  information,  knowledge  exchange,  capacity  building  and  data management.

(c)  Madam, the Government has taken up River Surface Cleaning using trash skimmer initially in 6 cities namely Mathura-Vrindavan, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and New Delhi under the Namami Gange programme. Tendering process for River surface cleaning activities at other Priority towns has also completed.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has inspected the 752 GPIs (as on 30th June, 2016) out of the identified 764 Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) operating on the bank of River Ganga and  issued  directions  under  Section  5  of  E  (P)  Act,  1986  to  573  units  found  non-compliant during  inspection.  Out  of  these  573  units,  65  units  were  issued  closure  directions.  Five  key industrial sectors namely, distillery, sugar, pulp & paper, tannery and textile contributing 90% of inorganic load into the river system have been issued directions to achieve water conservation and zero liquid discharge by March, 2017.

Directions have been issued to local/urban bodies for establishing STPs of adequate capacity and provide  underground  sewerage  system  to  cover  the  entire  local/urban  areas  and  bridging  the generation/treatment  gap.  Directions  have  also  been  issued  to  118  towns  in  Ganga  basin  for treatment and utilization of sewage for restoration of water quality of rivers.

Besides  the  above,  CPCB  has  formulated  an  action  plan  for  implementation  of  zero  liquid discharge, water conservation and management practices in water polluting industries to control water pollution of river Ganga & its tributaries. The Action plan includes;

- (i)  Preparation of Guidelines on techno-economic feasibility of implementation of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD), water conservation and management  practices in water pollution industries, and action plan to achieve ZLD in Tannery, Distillery and Textiles (medium, large and cluster based textile units)
- (ii)  Directions  issued  to  all  industries  discharging  into  River  Ganga  or  its  tributaries  and  for installation of online effluent monitoring systems (OEMS).
- (iii) Revised standards notified for Sugar sector vide notification dated 14.01.2016 including the treated effluent discharge limit of 200 lit/tonne of cane crushed to reduce the pollution load.

CPCB is also establishing a network of 113 real time water quality monitoring facilities on river Ganga  in  the  5  Ganga  states  (Uttarakhand,  Uttar  Pradesh,  Bihar,  Jharkhand  &  West  Bengal) under World Bank funded project 'Water Quality monitoring System for River Ganga (WQM)'.

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