ET GBS 2018: By March 2019, Ganga will be 80% cleaner, says Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: The pollution level of Ganga will fall by at least 80% by March 2019, Union minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari promised at the Global Business Summit here on Saturday. Delivering the closing speech on Day 2 of the summit, Gadkari identified Kanpur as one of the 10 biggest polluters of Ganga. 

“All villages along Ganga are being transformed as ‘Ganga grams’ that will have 100% toilet coverage. Various corporates are adopting these villages under CSR… 12 have come forward and committed around Rs 3,000 crore for these villages,” he said. 

“Around 70% pollution is because of 10 cities. I am regularly reviewing projects coming up to clean Ganga,” said Gadkari, who is also the minister for road transport and highways and shipping. “By March 2019, Ganga will be cleaner by at least 80%,” he said, adding cleaning projects are also being taken up as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. 

“All villages along Ganga are being transformed as ‘Ganga grams’ that will have 100% toilet coverage. Various corporates are adopting these villages under CSR… 12 have come forward and committed around Rs 3,000 crore for these villages,” he said. 

The minister said various irrigation and water-linking projects were being put on the fast track to push agricultural growth. “Agriculture growth rate would jump from 4% if we are able to bring water to 1.8 lakh hectare of land… 99 irrigation projects have been started and we are not building canals any more. We are laying pipelines – that’s more cost efficient,” he said. “River linking projects worth Rs 8 lakh crore have been planned. Five such projects would be completed soon.” 

On the transport sector, Gadkari said the number of passenger vehicles on roads was growing at an alarming rate and modern public transportation systems were the need of the hour. If cars kept growing at the same rate, the government would have to spend Rs 80,000 crore every three years to expand highways, he added. 

“Public transport on electricity is the priority. We want to promote cable car and pods on PPP (public-private partnership), especially in hilly areas to bring down pollution. I have suggested to states such as Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand that they should provide tax exemption and free electricity to investors,” he added. The minister said bullet trains were capital intensive and should be deployed only to connect metros. 

“For suburban region and non-metros, a cost effective transportation system should be looked at. We should be introducing transportation system such as pods and mono rails that are one-tenth the cost of metro trains,” he said. The minister said the government was already incentivising electronic and alternate fuel vehicles to bring down pollution. “I have proposed that we should have electric and bio fuel bikes as taxis. Concessions for electric vehicles are already there. (Government think tank) Niti Aayog has standardised the charging technology and infrastructure. 

GST is 12% on electric cars as compared to 28% on other cars. More incentives would come as and when there is the need,” Gadkari said. On the development of ports sector, the minister said the Sagarmala Coast development plan will entail an investment of Rs 16 lakh crore and he has already awarded projects worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore. “The special economic zone in JNPT, Mumbai, would itself attract investment of at least Rs 50,000 crore and will give employment to 1.5 lakh people. All our major ports are likely to post a consolidated profit of Rs 7,000 crore in the current fiscal,” he said. 

The minister said work on at least 10 expressways across the country was already on. He said the rate of road deaths in India was high because there were design faults in most highways that led to creation of black spots, and also because at least 30% of driving licences in the country were bogus. 

Article Source: Economic Times