The Government has formed a committee of secretaries to clean and rejuvenate the Ganga and to promote inland transport on the river.
The Government has formed a department called Ganga Rejuvenation, which will make coordinated efforts to clean the Ganga, said Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti after a meeting of four ministers on Ganga.
Apart from Bharti, Minister of Inland Waterways Nitin Gadkari, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Tourism Minister Sripad Yesso Naik participated in the meeting. Talking to reporters after the meeting Bharti said a committee of secretaries has been formed to make a detailed proposal for cleaning the Ganga.
Gadkari said the CoS has been given a deadline of one month. The ministers said if needed, other departments will also be asked to cooperate with the mission. Gadkari said that a Cabinet note on the subject will be prepared.
Bharti said the secretaries will meet frequently and prepare a roadmap. She said the roadmap will be used as a parameter to develop other rivers too. “Ganga is our priority. We will first make it a model and will implement it for other rivers,” she said.
A Government release said the Ministers also discussed a plan for the development of river Ganga as a tourism destination, means of transport fisheries development and power generation.
Gadkari added that dredging to provide a width of 45 meters and a minimum depth of three metres to enable transport of passengers and goods between Varanasi and Hoogly on the Ganga will be started in the first stage of the river’s development. He said 11 terminals are proposed to be constructed along the banks. Barrages are proposed to be constructed at every 100 km.