MINISTER OF THE STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS
(SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN)
(a) Under the Ganga Action Plan, a total of 83 sewage treatment plants have been sanctioned
since 1985, of which 69 have been completed.
(b) & (c) As reported by Central Pollution Control Board, about 2723 million litres of sewage
is generated every day from Class I cities and Class II towns along the Ganga River. So far, a
total capacity to treat 1208.8 million litres per day (mld) has been created in these towns, of
which 1091 mld has been established under Ganga Action Plan and remaining from State’s resources.
State-wise sewage generation and available treatment capacity is given below :
State Class-I cities (36) Class-II towns (14)
Sewage Treatment Sewage Treatment Generation Capacity Generation Capacity (mld) (mld) (mld) (mld)
Uttarakhand 39.6 18 21.7 6.3
Uttar Pradesh 873.9 460.8 63.5 8.1
Bihar 376.5 165.2 30.7 4.2
West Bengal 1311.3 548.4 6.0 -
TOTAL 2601.3 1192.4 122 16.4
(d) & (e) The National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) has decided under Mission Clean Ganga
that no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluents should flow into Ganga by 2020. In
order to meet the shortfall in the sewage treatment infrastructure, projects amounting to nearly
Rs. 3005 crore have been sanctioned under the NGRBA for development of sewer networks, sewage
treatment plants of additional capacity of 470 mld, electric crematoria, community toilets,
development of river fronts etc. A World Bank assisted project for a period of 8 years at an
estimated cost of Rs 7000 crore has been approved for conservation and restoration of water
quality of the river Ganga.
(f) CPCB has monitored nine heavy metals including mercury at various locations in Uttar Pradesh
and West Bengal.As reported, rivers are meeting the acceptable limit for ambient waters. Further
to strengthen the water quality monitoring of river Ganga, a project on ‘Strengthening of
Environmental Regulator’ has recently been sanctioned under NGRBA to CPCB at a cost of Rs. 69.26
crore. The project includes capacity building for monitoring of various parameters which covers
monitoring of heavy metals in river Ganga and its major tributaries.
