Nitin Gadkari to lay foundation stone of 11 projects for Yamuna rejuvenation

Union Minster Nitin Gadkari will lay the foundation stone of eleven projects for Yamuna Rejuvenation under Namami Gange Programme in New Delhi on Thursday. Along with Gadkari, Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be present on the occasion.

Notably, a total of 11 projects have been taken up under Namami Gange Programme by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) to conserve the River Yamuna in Delhi. Most of the projects are for the sewerage infrastructure and are at various stages of implementation. These projects under Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) III are located in three drainage zones namely Kondli, Rithala and Okhla in Delhi.

The current sewage generation for Delhi city is about 327 crore litres per day against the existing treatment capacity of 276 crore litres per day. YAP-I was taken up for Delhi during 1993-2003 and YAP-II was extended in 2003 to cover Uttar Pradesh and Haryana along with Delhi.

Building on the success and lessons learned from YAP-I and II, Government of India launched YAP-III with JICA assistance in Delhi at an estimated cost of Rs 1656 crore which has got integrated as a component of Namami Gange Mission. Delhi Jal Board is the executing agency for these projects.

Delhi, the National Capital, is a mega metropolitan with a population of around 2 crore. The city sprawls over an area of 1484 Sq.km. Rising population and growth of National Capital Region (NCR) have significantly contributed to rise in the flow of untreated sewage directly into the River Yamuna, one of the sacred rivers of India and largest tributary of Ganga, our National River. The total length of the Yamuna up to its point of confluence with the Ganga at Prayagraj is 1370 km, its catchment areas is spread over 3.67 lakh sq kms.

A total of eight sewerage infrastructure projects in Delhi under YAP-III, include the creation of 56.4 crore litres per day STP capacity at Okhla, rehabilitation and upgradation of 38.6 crore litres per day STP capacity, rehabilitation of trunk sewer and Rising main of 35 km length in Kondli and Rithala zones. The sewerage projects are being taken up in four packages of Kondli (K1, K2, K3, K4), three packages of Rithala (R1a, R1b, R2) and Okhla zone (O). Of these, 7 projects are at various stages of implementation. One project of Okhla zone is under a tendering process.

In addition of these, two projects at a total cost of Rs 580 crore have been sanctioned – Waste Water Treatment Plant of 31.8 crore litres per day at coronation Pillar costing Rs 515.07 crore and 9 nos of decentralized STPs (2.25 crore litres per day) at Chattarpur of Rs 65.24 crore.

Also Read: Leadership should own up to defeat and failures: Nitin Gadkari