Indian corporates, NRIs commit over $5 bn for Ganga development

Indian corporates, NRIs and PIOs in UK have committed more than $5 billion for the development of amenities like ghats, river fronts, crematoria and parks as part of the Namami Gange Mission.

At a roadshow organised jointly by the National Mission for Clean Ganga and the Indian High Commission in London yesterday, minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, road transport and highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari appealed to business leaders to participate in the mission to clean Ganga.

Among the important MoUs signed were those by Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Group for ghats and amenities along Ganga at Patna; Ravi Mehrotra of Foresight Group for Kanpur; Hinduja Group for Haridwar; Prakash Lohia of Indo Rama Group for Kolkata. The projects will be developed, built and operated by these corporates under their CSR initiatives.

MoUs were also signed for innovative technologies for river cleaning, with companies, including Lyndon Water, Celtic Renewables, Medifarm, NVH Technologies and Arkatap. Apart from these, many companies and individuals have agreed to take up projects from the list of over 200 projects for which private funding has been sought.

There are projects worth more than Rs10,000 crore for development of ghats, crematoria, waterbodies, parks, sanitation facilities, public amenities and river front which need additional funding. Projects worth over Rs2,500 crore, available for private funding, have been published as a booklet. These are also available on the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) website as an e-booklet.

The government is appealing to the business community to participate in the Namami Gange Mission to clean the river by funding projects of their choice.