Cleaning Ganga will take 18 yrs: Centre tells SC

The Centre has identified 118 towns located in five Ganga river basin states to achieve total sanitation targets including waste water treatment and solid waste management as a part of its 18-year-old plan to rejuvenate the holy river.

The Centre has identified 118 towns located in five Ganga river basin states to achieve total sanitation targets including waste water treatment and solid waste management as a part of its 18-year-old plan to rejuvenate the holy river.

An affidavit filed before the Supreme Court by the ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation said this project would tentatively cost Rs 51,000 crore. The blueprint to clean the river has projects spread over three-phases — short term for three years, medium term that would take five years and long term projects extending upto 10 years.

The ministry also identified seven river front locations to development ghats as such an intervention is expected to facilitate better citizen connect and set the tone for river centric urban planning process. The ghats are at Kedarnath, Haridwar, Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Patna and Delhi.

The affidavit, filed in response to September 9 direction further said the department of drinking water and sanitation has contemplated a scheme for making all 1,649 gram panchayats located on Ganga banks free from open defecation.