Drain water being released in Ganga at Anta Ghat in Patna. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, May 16: The ambitious Ganga riverfront beautification project has taken off quite well but the state government has failed to ensure that only treated drain water is released in the river.

Funds meant for setting up treatment plants in four places in the state are lying unused for more than a year and the state government has been unable to even get sanction for funds for setting treatment plants in Patna under National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA).

The sewerage network and sewerage treatment plants (STPs) in Patna are to be constructed under NGRBA at an estimated cost of Rs 330 crore, which has not been sanctioned by the central government as yet.

NGRBA is a statutory body formed with a motive to ensure the planning, financing, monitoring and co-ordinating aspects of collective efforts of the central and state governments for prevention of pollution and preservation of river Ganga and notified by the ministry of environment and forest on February 20, 2009 under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

Under this scheme, sewage network and STPs are proposed to be constructed at five places in Bihar, including Patna, Begusarai, Buxar, Hajipur and Munger.

The sewerage network and the STPs would clean the sewerage water generated by these towns and the treated water of designated standards would be discharged in Ganga. The scheme comes under the domain of urban development department of the state government, which has made Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (BUIDCo) as its executing agency for this scheme.

According to sources, BUIDCo received initial funds to the quantum of Rs 15 crore in April last year and Rs 20 crore in last year for execution work under this scheme. However, apart from some miniscule expenditure on advertisements and other initial work, nothing has been spent on the execution front.

The scheme, sources added, is in the lurch because of sluggish preparation of revised detailed project reports (DPRs) and bidding documents, land and inland acquisition and other technical snags. Sources also said that Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) was assigned as consultant by urban development department in May last year for preparing DPR for Patna.

According to sources, work on preparing DPRs for four places — Begusarai, Buxar, Hajipur and Munger — was given to various consultants in September, 2008. As the final revised DPR for none of the places is ready as of now, no execution work has been done.

A senior official from National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD), Delhi on condition of anonymity, said funds under NGRBA have been sanctioned for sewerage network and STPs in four towns in Bihar early last year. Funds worth Rs 65.4 crore for construction of STP having a capacity of 17 million litres per day (MLD) in Begu- sarai was sanctioned in March last year.

Again, Rs 74.95 crore was sanctioned in March last year for construction of an STP with a capacity of 16MLD in Buxar. Another Rs 113.62 crore for construction of an STP at Hajipur with a capacity of 22MLD was sanctioned in March last year.

Further, Rs 187.89 crore was sanctioned in May 2010 last year for construction of another STP with a capacity of 28MLD at Munger.

All such funds are lying idle as the revised DPR is not ready as of now. The NRCD official also said that such projects are expected to be implemented at around 20 places in Bihar, which fall on the banks of river Ganga.

Mayank Warwade, the managing director of BUIDCo, said the corporation is making efforts for speedy execution of this scheme. “The process for land acquisition is currently going on in Begusarai and hajipur. We are also working on completing other technical formalities for rest of the projects,” said Warwade.

The current sewage network and the STPs in Patna are insufficient to cater to the requirements of the city. A senior official from Bihar Rajya Jal Parishad said Patna presently generates around 350MLD of sewerage, which gets treated at four STPs, whicih have a combined capacity of 109MLD. The STP at Saidpur has a capacity to treat 45MLD, another at Beur can treat 35MLD, the STP at Pahadi has a capacity of 25MLD and that at Karmalichuk has a capacity of 4MLD only.

The rate at which untreated water is discharged in Ganga everyday and even after the availability of funds to prevent this, nothing has been done at the execution level.