The Sarai 14MLD sewage treatment plant in Haridwar was inaugurated on Thursday. The plant built at a cost of Rs 41.40 crore under the public private partnership model was opened by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia along with Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and Union Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The sewage treatment plant built under the hybrid annuity method has been completed ahead of schedule, said a ministry of Jal Shakti release. It uses the sequential batch reactor process to remove impurities. The developer will operate the plant for 15 years and will be responsible for meeting quality standards.
The National Mission for Clean Ganga has envisaged 150 sewerage treatment plants in the river basin at a cost of Rs 23,000 crore, apart from several projects to check industrial and other sources of pollution. In Uttarakhand, 34 projects with a treatment capacity of 165.5 MLD are at different levels of completion at a cost of Rs 1,144.77 crore. Of these 34, 23 have been completed. There will be a substantial improvement in the quality of Ganga water once the projects are completed, the release said.
Several projects are being undertaken in Uttarakhand for ghats, river front development, afforestation and trash skimmers under NamamiGange programme at a cost of Rs 150 crore.
Sweden’s secretary of state Maja Fjaestad, Swedish ambassador to India KlasMolin, National Mission for Clean Ganga director general Rajiv Ranjan Mishra and Indian ambassador to Sweden Monika Kapil Mohta were present at the function.