1. Creating Sewerage Treatment Capacity:-

As of date, 200 sewerage infrastructure projects including 1 decentralized modular project have been sanctioned at a total cost of Rs. 31,810 Crore, out of which 116 projects have been completed and made operational. And remaining projects are under various stages of implementation.

2. Creating River-Front Development:-

84 Ghats/Crematoria projects for construction, modernization, and renovation of 286 Ghats/Crematoria and Kunds/Ponds have been sanctioned.

3. River Surface Cleaning:-

River Surface cleaning for collection of floating solid waste from the surface of the Ghats and River and its disposal are afoot and pushed into service at 11 locations.

4. Bio-Diversity Conservation:-

One of NMCG’s long-term visions for Ganga rejuvenation is to restore viable populations of all endemic and endangered biodiversity of the river, so that they occupy their full historical range and fulfil their role in maintaining the integrity of the Ganga river ecosystems.

To address this, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Kolkata & Uttar Pradesh State Forest Department has been awarded projects to develop science-based aquatic species restoration plan for Ganga River by involving multiple stakeholders along with conservation & restoration of aquatic biodiversity.

As per the field research conducted by WII, high biodiversity areas have been identified in river Ganga for focused conservation action, rescue & rehabilitation centers have been established for the rescued aquatic biodiversity, cadre of volunteers (Ganga Praharis) have been developed and trained to support conservation actions in the field, floating interpretation centre “Ganga Tarini” and interpretation centre “Ganga Darpan” have been established for developing awareness on biodiversity conservation and Ganga rejuvenation, key ecosystem services of Ganga river have been identified and an assessment framework developed to strengthen the environmental services in the river basin.

CIFRI has carried out the assessment of fish and fisheries in the basin to record the available fish species and has mapped it in GIS platform to understand the status and distribution of fishes in Ganga. Tagging procedures has also been initiated to see the migration pattern of identified fish like Hilsa. CIFRI is also conducting ranching and awareness programmes at various locations in the river basin for conservation and restoration of Indian Major Carps (IMC) & Mahseer in Ganga.

Further, the Uttar Pradesh State Forest Department is implementing the ‘Expansion of conservation breeding program of freshwater turtles and Gharial at Kukrail Gharial Rehabilitation Centre, Lucknow’ which will help in revival and restoration of Gharials and turtles in the Ganga basin.

5. Afforestation:-

One of the major components of Ganga rejuvenation is ‘forestry interventions’ to enhance the productivity and diversity of the forests in head water areas and all along the river and its tributaries. Accordingly, Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for afforestation in an area of 1,34,106 hectares in the Ganga river bank states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal at an estimated cost of Rs. 2293.73 Crores.

The FRI DPR provides for taking up works under four major heads viz. Natural landscape, Agriculture landscape, Urban landscape and Conservation interventions.

The main purpose of the proposed forestry interventions is to contribute towards holistic conservation of river Ganga, including improving the flow in the river (Aviralta) by adopting a multi-pronged approach throughout the pre-defined Ganga riverscape.

The project of “Forestry Interventions for Ganga” is being implemented by State Forest Departments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal as per the FRI DPR since year 2016-17, for which NMCG is providing financial support to the respective State Forest Departments.

6. Public Awareness:-

A series of activities such as events, workshops, seminars and conferences and numerous IEC activities were organized to make a strong pitch for public outreach and community participation in the programme. Various awareness activities through rallies, campaigns, exhibitions, shram daan, cleanliness drives, competitions, plantation drives and development and distribution of resource materials were organized and for wider publicity the mass mediums such as TV/Radio, print media advertisements, advertorials, featured articles and advertorials were published.

Ganga Theme song was released widely and played on digital media to enhance the visibility of the programme.

NMCG ensured presence at Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

7. Industrial Effluent Monitoring:-

The number of Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) in April, 2019 are 1072. Regulation and enforcement through regular and surprise inspections of GPIs is carried out for compliance verification against stipulated environmental norms.

The GPIs are also inspected on annual basis for compliance verification of the pollution norms and process modification, wherever required through third party technical institutes.

First round of inspection of GPIs by the third-party technical institutes has been carried out in 2017. Second round of inspection of GPIs has been completed in 2018. Out of 961 GPIs inspected in 2018, 636 are complying, 110 are non-complying and 215 are self-closed. Action has been taken against 110 non-complying GPIs and are issued closure directions under Section 5 of the E(P) Act.

Online Continuous Effluent Monitoring Stations (OCEMS) connectivity established to CPCB server in 885 out of 1072 GPIs.

8. Ganga Gram:-

Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MoDWS) identified 1674 Gram Panchayats situated on the bank of River Ganga in 5 State (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal). Rs. 578 Crores has been released to MoDWS for construction of toilets in these Gram Panchayats.

Out of the targeted 15,27,105 units, MoDWS has completed construction of 8,53,397 toilets.

Consortium of 7 IITs has been engaged in the preparation of Ganga River Basin Plan and 65 villages have been adopted by 13 IITs to develop as model villages.

UNDP has been engaged as the executing agency for rural sanitation programme and to develop Jharkhand as a model State at an estimated cost of Rs. 127 Crore.

National Mission for Clean Ganga, endeavors to deploy best available knowledge and resources across the world for Ganga rejuvenation. Clean Ganga has been a perennial attraction for many international countries that have expertise in river rejuvenation. Countries such as Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Israel etc. have shown interest in collaborating with India for Ganga rejuvenation. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed with various Central Ministries such as Ministry of HRD, Rural Development, Railways, Shipping, Tourism, Ayush, Petroleum, Youth Affairs & Sports, Drinking Water & Sanitation, and Agriculture.