National River Conservation Plan

The Central Government has allocated funds to various States under the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) for river water cleaning during the past three years. The Centrally sponsored scheme of National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) covers polluted stretches of 39 rivers in 185 towns spread over 20 States. The Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments in river conservation by undertaking pollution abatement works on a cost sharing basis under the Plan. An expenditure of Rs.4475 crore has been incurred and sewage treatment capacity of 4417 million litres per day (mld) has been created so far. A statement indicating the State-wise details of funds released during the last three years under the Plan is at Annexure.

External assistance from bilateral/ multilateral agencies is availed of from time to time by the Government. For the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) Phase-I, loan assistance of Yen 17.77 billion was provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Government of Japan and an assistance of Yen 13.33 billion is being availed for YAP Phase-II from the agency. JICA has agreed to provide a loan assistance of Yen 32.571 billion for the next phase of the Programme.

For pollution abatement of the river Ganga at Varanasi, an assistance of 11.184 billion Yen is being availed from JICA. A project with World Bank assistance for abatement of pollution of river Ganga at an estimated cost of Rs.7000 crore has been approved in April, 2011. The World Bank will provide financial assistance of US $ 1 billion for the project.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment and Forests (independent charge) Jayanthi Natarajan in a written reply to a question by Dr. Janardhan Waghmare in Rajya Sabha.