Two years after the launch of the Namami Gange Mission—India’s plan to clean up the Ganga river—the central government will launch over 200 projects worth Rs.2000 crore under the programme. The 231 projects to be launched 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. A Rs.196-crore online pollution monitoring system will also be launched.

Projects will be launched in seven states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana and Delhi. To ensure a clean and uninterrupted river Ganga was a key manifesto promise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which came to power in 2014. But the mission, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has failed to attract the kind of support envisaged by the government.

The 2500-km-long river originates in the Himalayas and ends in the Bay of Bengal in the east, after passing through Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Over 1500 million litres of raw sewage is discharged into the river every day along with 500 million litres of industrial waste dumped by more than 700 highly polluting industries located along the main river. In May last year, the central government approved an outlay of Rs.20,000 crore for five years for the centrally financed mission.