Government of India (GoI) launched the Namami Gange Programme in 2014-15, to accomplish the objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga and its tributaries.

Government of India (GoI) has been routing all funds for National Ganga River Basin Project (NGRBP) and thereafter the Namami Gange Program through National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). NMCG further disburses funds to the State Mission for Clean Ganga (SMCG) and Direct Executing Agencies (DEAs) for project activities pertaining to rejuvenation of river Ganga and its tributaries.

The funds allocation for implementation of river Ganga rejuvenation programme from Financial Year 2014-15 till 28^th February, 2022 is Rs.15,524.86 crore. GoI has disbursed Rs.11,567.02 crore to NMCG and NMCG has further disbursed Rs.11,526.77 crore to SMCG/ DEAs from Financial Year 2014-15 till 28^th February, 2022 for project activities pertaining to the implementation of the program for river Ganga Rejuvenation. 

Government of India is supplementing the efforts of the State Government in addressing the challenges of pollution in river Ganga and its tributaries by providing financial and technical assistance under Namami Gange Programme. Under this Programme, a diverse set of interventions for cleaning and rejuvenation of river Ganga have been taken up including waste water treatment, solid waste management, river front management (ghats and crematoria), maintaining continuous flow, rural sanitation, afforestation, biodiversity conservation and public participation etc. Namami Gange is a an integrated river conservation programme based on Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP) which was prepared by a consortium of 7 IITs led by IIT-Kanpur.

A total of 364 projects have been taken up at a sanctioned cost of Rs.30,853.5 crore, out of which, 183 projects are completed.  The projects have been taken up along the main stem towns of river Ganga as well as on 15 tributaries namely Yamuna, Kosi, Saryu, Ramganga, Kali (West), Kali (East), Gomti, Son, Barakar, Hindon, Burhi Gandak, Banka, Damodar, Rispana-Bindal and Chambal. The detailed list of projects sanctioned under Namami Gange Programme is enclosed at Annexure-I.

Till date, 160 sewerage infrastructure projects have been sanctioned to abate the pollution from main stem towns of river Ganga and tributaries to create/ rehabilitate 5,024 MLD sewage treatment capacity along with laying of 5227 km of sewerage network. Out of these 160 projects, 76 projects have been completed, and balance are at various stages of implementation. With the completed projects, 1079.5 MLD STP capacity has been created/ rehabilitated and 3860.5 km sewer network has been laid. Around 3000 MLD sewage is generated from the 97 towns along Ganga against which sewage generation treatment capacity of 2407 MLD capacity has already been installed and another 934 MLD STP capacity has been sanctioned and is at various stages of implementation.

Under the Namami Gange Programme, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is carrying out water quality assessment of the River Ganga at 97 locations in 5 main stem States through the respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs).

As per CPCB data for 2021, the observed water quality of river Ganga indicates that Dissolved Oxygen (DO), which is an indicator of river health has been found to be within acceptable limits of notified primary bathing water quality criteria and is satisfactory to support the ecosystem of the river for almost the entire stretch of the river Ganga. As per CPCB report of 2018, there were four Polluted Stretches on main stem of river Ganga (one stretch in Priority Category III, two stretch in Ppriority Category IV and one stretch under Priority Category V, where Priority Category I being most polluted). Now, as per the report of 2021, none of the Ganga Stretches are in Priority Category I to IV and only two stretches are in Priority Category V with Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) ranging between 3-6 mg/l as per CPCB categorization of polluted stretch.

With the various interventions taken up under the Namami Gange Programme, the water quality of river Ganga has remarkably improved across various erstwhile polluted stretches of river Ganga. As per comparison of median data of water quality parameters viz., DO, Bio-chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Faecal Coliform (FC) of year 2014 and 2021; DO (Median) has improved at 31 locations; BOD at 46 locations and FC at 23 locations, respectively.

The definition of various Priority Categories as per CPCB categorization is given below:

 

Priority Category	I	II	III	IV	V
Criteria	BOD  > 30 mg/l	BOD:  20-30 mg/l	BOD: 10-20 mg /l	BOD: 6-10 mg/l	BOD:  3-6 mg / l

 

This Information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti,  Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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BY/AS

 

ANNEXURE-I

Details of sanctioned projects, costs and completion status

S. No.	Type of Project		No of Projects Sanctioned	Total Sanctioned Cost (Rs., Cr. )	No of Projects Completed
1	Sewerage Projects	Uttarakhand	36	1,373.19	32
		Uttar Pradesh	53	10,563.17	29
		Bihar	30	5,530.65	5
		Jharkhand	3	217.17	1
		West Bengal	24	4,099.88	3
		Haryana	2	217.87	2
		Delhi	10	2,295.84	3
		Himachal Pradesh	1	11.57	1
		Rajasthan	1	258.48	0
		Total	160	24,567.82	76
2	Modular STP Decentralized		1	410	0
3	River front, Ghats and Crematoria		90	1553.33	66
4	Ghats Cleaning & River Surface Cleaning		5	85.16	1
5	Industrial Pollution Abatement		15	1,267.37	0
6	Afforestation and Biodiversity conservation		41	634.55	26
7	Rural Sanitation		1	1,421.26	0
8	Bioremediation		13	235.89	2
9	Ganga Knowledge & Monitoring Center		8	192.46	2
10	Composite Ecological Task Force and Ganga Mitra		5	199.29	3
11	R&D, Public Outreach & Support to District Ganga Committee		25	286.40	7
	Grand Total		364	30853.53	183

 

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