Centre invites global firms for Ganga test

In an attempt to make its ambitious Clean Ganga mission a success, the Centre has invited firms and scientists from across the world with technological expertise in cleaning drains before they empty into rivers to demonstrate how they deal with the problem. Drains carrying industrial and human waste are one of the biggest reasons why the Ganga is so polluted.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), the nodal body for the project, is thinking of carrying out “in-situ bioremediation” of drains that empty into the Ganga. This process, which is a part of the sewage treatment exercise, not only treats water to some extent but also reduces the stench from the flowing filth.

A senior water ministry official said: “We have invited companies and experts who, using the latest technologies, can at least clean the water to the extent that it can be used for bathing purposes.”

“It is a global invitation for interested scientists or firms to come to India and demonstrate their technological suitability, feasibility, financial and limiting conditions, at their own cost, for a minimum initial period of one month,” a document uploaded on the NMCG website said, adding, “The outcome of the technology deployed should clearly demonstrate the monitoring protocol, and the cost of installing, operating and maintaining the system which would be reimbursed from the second month onward, subject to its performance being found up to the mark by an independent agency.”

After testing of such technologies in the Ganga basin, the same may be extended to 144 already identified drains that discharge untreated water into the Ganga.

The Clean Ganga mission is one of the pet projects of this government and the Union Cabinet had cleared an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore for it a year ago. However, the government has not been able to make much progress in this regard so far.