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.