Giving a major boost to Namami Gange Programme Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti has announced that 231 projects will be inaugurated at various locations in Uttrakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana and Delhi tomorrow. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today the Minister said these projects involve modernization and redevelopment of Ghats and crematoriums, development of sewage infrastructure and treatment, afforestation, tree plantation (medicinal plants), pilot drain project, interceptor drain project, trash skimmers and conservation of biodiversity. The Minister said 47 such projects will be inaugurated at various locations in Dehradun, Garhwal, Tehri garhwal, Rudraprayag, Haridwar and Chamoli districts of Uttrakhand. The main function will be held at Haridwar which will be attended by Uttrakhand CM Shri Harish Rawat and Union Ministers Shri Nitin Gadkari, Choudhary Birender Singh, Shri Mahesh Sharma and Sushri Uma Bharti.
20 projects of Namami Gange will be inaugurated at various locations in North 24 pargana, Nadia, South 24 pargana and Howrah districts of West Bengals. The main programme will be held at Budge Budge. 26 projects will be inaugurated at various locations in Buxar, Vaishali, Saran, Patna and Bhagalpur districts of Bihar. Main function will be held at Patna. 112 projects under Namami Gange programme will be inaugurated at various locations in Amroha, Bijnor, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Mathura, Allahabad, Varanasi, Farukhabad and Kanpur districts. The main functions will be held simultaneously at Narora, Mathura , Varanasi and Kanpur. Referring to Ganga Gram Yojana, Sushri Bharti said that 400 villages along the river Ganga will be developed as Ganga Gram in phase-I. 13 IITs have adopted five villages each for development as Ganga Grams. She said training for 328 sarpanchs was completed at Sichawal in Punjab. The Minister said eight biodiversity centers will be developed along Ganga for restoration of identified priority species. These centers will be developed at Rishikesh, Dehradun, Narora, Allahabad, Varanasi, Bhagalpur, Sahibganj and Barraackpore.