India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, digitally has inaugurated and laid the foundation of 3 new projects in Bihar under the Namami Gange mission.

During the event, Prime Minister inaugurated a 43 MLD Sewerage Treatment Plant built under the Namami Gange project in the Beur area under Patna Municipal Corporation as well as a sewerage treatment of 37 MLD capacity in Karamalichak.

A total of 11 projects have been approved by the Namami Gange Mission for the sewerage system of the entire Patna city. PM had laid the foundation for two other projects along with these STPs – Beur, and Karmalichak in October 2017. The work of 60 MLD Saidpur STP is also nearing completion.

Apart from this, under the Namami Gange scheme, Prime Minister Modi also laid the foundation stone of the Muzaffarpur River Front Development Scheme. Three ghats (East Akhara Ghat, Ladder Ghat, Chandwara Ghat) of Muzaffarpur city will be developed under this scheme. These riverfronts will have unique facilities like changing rooms, pathways, watchtowers, information kiosks, toilets, etc. Attractive signage, security system and adequate lighting will be major features of these ghats.

In addition to this, PM Modi also launched a water supply project in Siwan Municipal Council and Chhapra Municipal Corporation under the AMRUT scheme. As part of these schemes, local citizens will get clean drinking water round the clock.

During the program, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address, “Bihar has a major contribution to nation-building. Lakhs of engineers from Bihar are taking the development work of the country to new heights. The land of Bihar has always been synonymous with invention and innovation. He said that now basic amenities like drinking water and sewer are continuously improving in the cities of Bihar due to the joint efforts of the Center and the Government of Bihar.

Regarding Namami Ganga, he said that the villages adjacent to the Ganges will be made Ganga Village and the dirty water from these villages (going through the drains) will be stopped from entering Ganga. Mr. Modi also said that Bihar is the land of historical cities that have a rich heritage of over a thousand years. In ancient India, economically, culturally and politically rich cities prospered around Ganga valley. The cleanliness of Ganga water has a direct effect on crores of people. Elaborating his point, he said that in the coming days, Muzaffarpur River Front will develop like Patna River Front.”

He further stated, “Today, the scheme of Beur and Karamalichak has been inaugurated, which will benefit millions of people of this region. Under the Namami Gange Mission, the work of construction of more than 180 ghats is going on in the entire country including Bihar, of which 130 have been completed. He said that recently the government has also announced a project Dolphin. Ganga Dolphin will be the major beneficiary of this project. The conservation of the Ganges dolphin is very important for the conservation of the river Ganga. The entire extension of Ganga from Patna to Bhagalpur is the abode of the dolphin. Therefore, Bihar will not only benefit from Project Dolphin but will also boost tourism along with bio-diversity in river Ganga.”

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Water Power Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, and Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri were also present in the program. A film on the roadmap of development projects under Namami Gange was featured at the event.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, “Ensuring people get clean drinking water is a big task. Talking about himself, he said that where I was born in Bakhtiyarpur, only one or two wells had clean water. All of us have struggled a lot for clean water, so it is our responsibility to keep the water of the river Ganga clean. For this, the establishment of the Namami Gange sewerage plant is very important. He said that the Namami Gange Mission is working on several sewage treatment plans in Bihar, and we will complete them soon.”

In Bihar, 405 km of the Ganga river stretch is covered under the Namami Gange program. To date 54 projects have been sanctioned in the field of Sewerage Infrastructure, Ghats and Crematoria and River Front Development, Afforestation, Bio-remediation, Rural Sanitation, and River Surface cleaning work at a total cost of Rs. 6245 Cr which are at different stages of implementation. At the same time, before this, the riverfront formed in Patna in collaboration with Namami Gange has received many national and international awards which include 2A Asia Architecture Award in the year 2016, 2A Award Exhibition in Vienna in 2017, and Pune Design Biennale in 2017.

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