Sewage treatment plants to be set up in Haridwar, Varanasi

The Centre on Wednesday approved setting up of sewage treatment plants (STPs) at Haridwar and Varanasi in the public-private partnership mode for a combined cost of ₹324.69 crore under its Namami Gange programme.

While the Pune-based HNB Engineering Pvt Ltd has won the contract for constructing the two STPs of an aggregate capacity of 82 million litres per day (MLD) in Varanasi, the project to build a 50 MLD plant at Haridwar has been awarded to a consortium led by Essel Infra Projects. These projects are expected to be up and running in less than two years.

The tripartite agreement was signed by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), the nodal agency for Namami Gange programme, the private firms and respective state water authorities in the presence of Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari.

These were the first two agreements with private sector companies to build STPs under an innovative PPP called hybrid-annuity payment model that the government formulated with the help of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

“These projects are the country’s first two hybrid annuity projects for the development of sewage infrastructure. They will ensure that untreated sewage from these cities does not flow into the Ganga, giving a boost to our flagship Namami Gange programme,” NMCG Director General UP Singh said in a statement.

Under the hybrid-annuity model, the government pays 40 per cent of the project cost linked to construction milestones. The remaining 60 per cent is paid over 15 years as annuities to the private concessionaire along with operation and maintenance expense.

A second set of sewage treatment projects under hybrid-annuity model are on the anvil. Among the projects that have been sanctioned already are STPs at Naini, Jhusi, and Phaphamau at Allahabad (72 MLD), plants at Unnao, Shuklaganj, and Bithoor along with Kanpur (21.4 MLD), plants at Digha and Kankarbagh in Bihar (150 MLD), plants at Kolkata and Howrah (141 MLD) STPs at Farukhabad (30 MLD), STP at Bhagalpur (65 MLD).

Over three-quarters of the sewage generated in the towns and cities flows untreated into the 2,525-km-long Ganga river, which is a water source for 400 million people, or 43 per cent of India’s population.

About 3,036 MLD sewage is generated from 118 towns in 11 States. Only 50 per cent of this is treated. Successful implementation of this programme will help millions by improving the water quality in the Ganga basin, the statement said.

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