(a) whether the Government has planned any deadline to complete the cleaning of Ganga river and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether there has been any tangible results in cleaning of Ganga river so far and if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the quantum of funds provided and spent on cleaning of the river since May 2014 till date?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT AND GANGA REJUVENATION
(DR. SANJEEV KUMAR BALYAN)
(a) Cleaning of river is a continuous process. The Government has launched Namami Gange Programme covering short term, medium term and long term activities, Under Short term activities certain entry level activities which cover development of ghats crematoria & river surface cleaning activities etc have been taken up.
Under Medium term activities existing Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) are being upgraded and new STP & ETPs are being established. Beside, rural sanitation has been taken up in the villages on the banks of river Ganga
The long term action plans involves restoration of wholesomeness of river Ganga, and maintaining the ecological & geological integrity of river.
Efforts are being made to complete Short term & Medium term projects by 2020.
(b) Namami Gange Programme has been launched as a holistic approach covering all existing ongoing projects and new initiative. Under Namami Gange Programme 163 projects for various activities such as sewage infrastructure, river front development, ghat & crematoria, ghat cleaning, rural sanitation etc. has been sanctioned. Out of 163 projects, 41 numbers of projects have been completed so far. In these completed projects 223.13 Mld of sewage capacity have been created alongwith 1338.99 Km of sewer network.
(c) An amount of Rs. 1,941.86 crore has been spent against the allocated amount of Rs. 3,633.00 crore from 2014-15 to 2017-18 (till 30.06.2017).
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