Work begins to clean up south Delhi’s Barapullah drain

The foundation stone for the project to revive the Barapullah drain, once a green spot in Delhi but reduced to a big drain that collects sewage from several colonies of south Delhi, was laid on Tuesday.

The foundation stone for the project to revive the Barapullah drain, once a green spot in Delhi but reduced to a big drain that collects sewage from several colonies of south Delhi, was laid on Tuesday.

Delhi L-G Anil Baijal (left), Union minister Harsh Vardhan (right) and minister of foreign affairs for the Netherlands, Bert Koenders (centre), lay the foundation stone for the Barapullah drain project. (Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

Department of biotechnology, Government of India and the Netherlands government have joined hands for the project. The Netherlands will spend Rs11 crore on the project and an equal or more money amount of money will be spent by India, said an official from the department of biotechnology.

In the first leg, which will be completed by July, a pilot plant will be made operational and some water from the drain would be treated to test the efficiency of the project.

The treated water, generated in the first leg, will be used for fountains in the park.

Barapullah is a 12.5km-long drain responsible for about 30% of pollution in the Yamuna River, collecting mainly domestic sewage and waste from small industries.

In the second leg of the project, which will be completed by 2019, bigger plants would be built and testing and cleaning of water would be done at a larger scale.

DDA has leased 200 sq metres of land to DBT for a period of 5 years for this purpose. The land is adjacent to the Sun Dial Park, he added.

Dutch and Indian companies will contribute to the project by sharing their existing technologies, which may need adjustments for becoming functional in the pilot plant. The project, if successful, will be used at other places too, said minister of science and technology Harsh Vardhan.

By July 2019, the department will set up the plant and in next five years the quality of water will change considerably, said an official.

L-G Anil Baijal, who was present at the site, said, “The migration pattern of the country is such that people are increasingly moving towards metro cities in coming days. To ensure better civic infrastructure we need such projects where water could be recycled.”