Erosion and deposition of silt is a natural process in alluvial rivers. Rivers pickup, carry and drop silt load as per their regime conditions i.e. discharge in the river, river slope, morphology, nature of silt etc. A Committee headed Dr. B.K. Mittal, Former Chairman, Central Water Commission has opined that large scale desilting or dredging of rivers in general is not feasible technically due to several reasons like non-sustainability, non-availability of vast land required for the disposal of dredged material etc. The Committee, however, suggested that selective dredging may be undertaken depending upon local conditions. Cost effective measures for removal of drainage congestion in specific reaches of rivers for channel capacity improvement and navigation purposes are formulated and implemented by concerned States/agencies as per requirement. The Union Government renders assistance to States which is technical, advisory, catalytic and promotional in nature.

As informed by Uttar Pradesh Projects Corporation Limited (UPPCL), Lucknow, four (4) projects are currently underway for the river channel dredging of Ganga river. The details of amount allocated/sanctioned and utilised for the projects during the last five (5) years are as under:-

UPPCL has informed that it has carried out hydrodynamic modeling of channelization work in districts Hardoi and Ballia through S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat. The study indicates that after river bed dredging, the dredged channel carries the discharge with high velocity which reduces bank erosion during high flows.

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