Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will embark on a Ganga Yatra in the new year, during which he will cover 1025 kilometres by boat to interact with the people living near the holy river and review the development works.
The state Jal Shakti Department will be the nodal department for this yatra while other departments will coordinate with it.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders will also cover the entire course of the river Ganga by boat from both sides in five days and meet at Kanpur.
While the date of the Ganga Yatra has not been finalised yet, officials here said on Friday that it could be in the first week of January or in the last week.
The Ganga Yatra will be launched on the same day from Ballia in the east and Bijnor in the west and will take five days’ time to reach Kanpur. While at Ballia, the yatra will commence from Kahauraha village in Beria tehsil on the UP-Bihar border, in Bijnor, it will commence from Sambhalgarh village in Nazibabad.
While Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the Ganga Yatra from Bijnor, UP Governor Anandiben Patel could do so from Ballia.
According to the blueprint of the Ganga Yatra, all the state ministers, Union ministers from UP and BJP leaders would participate in this yatra and they will make night halt at a village near the river Ganga.
The chief minister will join the yatra on all the five days at different places.
“During the night halt at villages near the river Ganga, the BJP ministers and leaders will hold chaupals with the villagers and enquire about their needs and problem,” sources said.
Every day the yatra will cover around 205 kilometres during which it will cover 26 districts, 21 local bodies, 1,638 villages and 1,026 gram panchayats.
The districts to be covered by the Ganga Yatra include Prayagraj, Ballia, Bijnor, Budaun, Bulandshahr, Chandauli, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur, Ghazipur, Hapur, Hardoi, Amroha, Kannauj, Kanpur, Kasganj, Kaushambi, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Sambhal, Bhadohi, Shahjahanpur, Unnao and Varanasi.
The UP government has also proposed a Ganga Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj in the first phase for which detailed project report (DPR) is being made.