Namami Gange Programme

History

The project was proposed by the Indian Government in 2014 with an original projected budget of Rs.20,000 Crore. It was approved by the Union Cabinet in May 2015. The project's planned outlay, intended to be spent over five years ending in 2020, was five times more than had been spent on similar efforts since 1985, according to a government statement. The government constituted a "National Ganga Council", led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to oversee the programme: the organization created to carry out the effort was called the National Mission for Clean Ganga. The National Mission For Clean Ganga declared Chacha Chaudhary the mascot of the Namami Gange Programme.

In 2021, the touring exhibition, "A Clean Ganga Roadshow," inaugurated on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, saw additional investment, including the formation of four chapters in Scotland, Wales, the Midlands, and London to connect various interest groups with the Namami Gange Programme. Also in 2021, over 30,000 fish eggs of economically important species, which were declining in the Ganges (such as catla, rohu, and mrigal) were released at the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna in Prayagraj Sangam, an effort organized by the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute. In June 2021, data from the National Mission for Clean Ganga indicated that out of 341 projects, 147 (43%) had been completed and that out of 157 sewage projects, 61 (39%) had been completed. In January 2023, during the launch of the MV Ganga Vilas cruise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for several other inland waterways projects worth more than Rs.1000 crores in a continued effort to raise awareness for the potential of the river cruise industry.

In March 2020, the government stated that it had approved 152 infrastructure projects in the Ganga basin related to improving sewage treatment, of which 46 had been completed. In July 2020, the director of the NMDC stated that it had spent half of the programme's initial allocation of Rs. 20,000 crore. He said that at the project's inception, the capacity of sewage treatment plants in towns along the Ganga was only sufficient to handle a third of sewage discharge, but that the Namani Gange program had expanded this capacity to meet approximately 2000 MLD of the necessary 3600 MLD.

Frontline, an Indian news magazine, said that by 2026, the government had approved 524 projects (including riverfront renovations and monitoring efforts in addition to sewage treatment works) of which 355 were complete.