India: Their Majesties, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden; Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat; Union Minister of Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat; Dr. Maja Fjaestad, Secretary of State, Sweden; Klas Molin, Ambassador of Sweden to India; Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, NMCG; and Monika Kapil Mohta, Ambassador of India to Sweden, inaugurated the 14 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Sarai in Haridwar this month.

The Sarai 14 MLD sewage treatment plant is the first STP to be completed under the Hybrid Annuity (HAM) based Public-Private-Partnership Model, involving a cost of Rs. 41.40 crores and the plant has been completed before its scheduled timeline. This Plant is based on advanced aerobic biological process, Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) process, capable of removing the nutrients during treatment and is a 100% eco-friendly project. The plant will meet the highest standards of output parameters.

Another unique feature of this HAM project is that after its commissioning, this plant will also be maintained and operated for a period of 15 years by the same developer for efficient performance and for meeting output parameters. The vision of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is long term and hence the capability being created would fully take care of the requirements up to 2035.

Municipal sewage, being the main source of pollution in the Ganga, is being tackled through 150 Sewerage projects at a cost of more than Rs. 23,000 crores (more than 3 billion USD), in addition to various interventions for checking industrial and other sources of pollution in the Ganga basin. Namami Gange interventions extend to urban as well as rural areas covering diverse sectors.

In order to improve the quality of water in river Ganga in the state of Uttarakhand, 34 Projects of sewerage infrastructure works have been taken up at a cost of approximately Rs. 1,144.77 crores for creating the treatment capacity of 165.50 MLD, and for laying sewerage network of 152 km. Out of these 34 projects, 23 have been completed and the remaining projects are at different stages of execution and implementation. Once all these projects are commissioned, the entire sewage capacity of the state of Uttarakhand would have been met, and there would be a substantial improvement in the quality of water of the river Ganga in Uttarakhand.

In addition, projects have also been taken up in Uttarakhand for several Ghats, River Front Development (RFD), Afforestation, Trash Skimmers, etc making the value of total interventions in Namami Gange in the state exceed INR 150 crores.

The visit of Their Majesties of the Republic of Sweden to Uttarakhand was triggered when His Majesty visited the Namami Gange Pavillion at the World Water Week 2019, Stockholm. The King showed a keen interest in the way NMCG is carrying out its mission by employing technological interventions and public participation. Seeing his interest, Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of Jal Shakti, invited him to visit the river Ganga and to see the Namami Gange interventions.

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