Unveiling an ambitious plan to develop the Ganga as a major waterway for transport and tourism, the government has decided to make the river stretch between Varanasi and Hooghly navigable by boats, while beautifying the major banks and constructing 11 multi-purpose terminals, including one at Patna.
This will be done in a time bound manner in its first stage of development at an estimated cost of Rs.6,000 crore.
The waterway plan will eventually be extended till Allahabad, covering 1,600 km. This was decided by an inter-ministerial group at its first meeting on Friday . It also set up a committee of secretaries (CoS), headed by water secretary Alok Rawat, to prepare a blueprint for the PM's pet Ganga development project.
The committee will submit the river rejuvenation plan to the Cabinet next month. The ministries -water resources, tourism, environment, power and shipping -will pool in resources to implement the audacious plan, sources said.
To begin with, dredging will be done on the identified stretch to provide a width of 45 metres and a depth of three metres to enable transport of passengers and goods between Varanasi and Hooghly on river Ganga in the first stage of its development. Barrages are also proposed to be constructed at every 100 km, which will also work for connectivity across the river.
Shipping minister Nitin Gadkari, who chaired the meeting, said the water level between two barrages can also be utilized for fishery so that people, including boatman, get employment. The idea is to develop Ganga as a tourism destination, means of transport, a boost to fisheries and hydro-power source.
Gadkari said, “A research institute on Ganga is proposed to be set up under the HRD ministry , possibly at Roorkee, and the tourism ministry will take measures to develop tourism along with banks“. “The environment ministry will make the river pristine by taking various measures at Kanpur and other places“, he said. Water resources minister Uma Bharti, environment minister Prakash Javadekar and tourism minister Shripada Yesso Naik were the others who attended the meet.
It was decided that areas surrounding the river will be utilized for religious tourism. The tourism ministry will explore options of setting up museums, building Ganga temples, holding light and sound show and distributing memorabilia.
Uma Bharti said Ganga rejuvenation will be a model for undertaking similar tasks in other rivers including Yamuna. “Ganga is our priority .The parameters set to rejuvenate Ganga will be the benchmark for other rivers. We need to set one river as a model and the parameters need to be set,“ she said.
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