Namami Gange project set to miss deadline

Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 3

It was in 2014 that the Namami Gange project was launched in Uttarakhand but four years down the line the project continues to be sluggish and is expected to miss the completion deadline of March 2019 set by the Central government.

The construction of mandatory STPs continues to be slow paced. At several places the work to prevent the discharge of waste from nullahs directly into the river is far from over.

As part of the project, a special plan was chalked out to prevent the nullahs from directly releasing waste into the Ganga. A total of 54 nullahs were selected for diverting their flow away from the river. 

The officials say around 19 STPs were sanctioned to prevent the discharge of the nullahs into the river. The work is still going on on most of these nullahs. “There is lack of coordination among various agencies. At several places the work is shoddy”, said an official who is part of the project.

A total of 15 cities were selected between Gomukh and Haridwar where 59 nullahs were directly releasing the waste, but work on 18 STPs is still far from complete.

According to information, works to the tune of Rs 88,520 lakh have been sanctioned under the project, out of which only Rs 8,830 lakh has been sanctioned and only Rs 7,180 lakh spent.

The government officials say the scope of the project has been expanded by including more towns which may lead to the project extending beyond March 2019. “Several new components have been added in the last few months. So these may take time and may even go beyond 2019,” said Raghav Langar, additional secretary and project in charge.

He said recently Dehradun and Srinagar were included in the project. More new projects have been sanctioned by the Central government. Along with the construction of STPs, the progress on the building of ghats and crematorium too continue to be slow paced and sluggish.