In its bid to cleanse River Yamuna, Delhi Government has constituted a high- level committee involving all stakeholders, including Delhi Development Authority (DDA), three Municipalities, Environment, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to finalise modalities to check polluting the river further. This has been decided at a high-level meeting held at Raj Niwas. When asked, lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung informed that a high-level committee involving all stakeholders to be constituted to finalise modalities for cleaning of river Yamuna.
The lieutenant Governor said that the work on interceptor sewer is expected to be completed by July 2015. Jung said the administration was according top priority to bring down air and water pollution in the city. “We will be able to control 70 per cent of the pollution into the Yamuna by setting up interceptors. To check the rest of the 30 per cent pollutants, which is natural and industrial waste, both the Delhi Jal Board and the municipal bodies are preparing a detailed plan.”
The lG said that a High-Powered Committee, under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sanjay Srivastava, was preparing a detailed plan on how to bring down air and water pollution. He said the committee would be ready with a detailed plan in the next 15 to 20 days. Jung said that the water into the Yamuna flows from other states. “We can simply clean it up. And we will be beautifying its banks by planting plants, which have been specially grown by the Delhi Development Authority.
To address the issue of pollution in the Yamuna, Delhi Government has undertaken a comprehensive project through which all the polluting drains shall be cleaned before they merge into the river. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is implementing the interceptor sewer with a length of 59 km along the three major drains (supplementary, Najafgarh and Shahdara) to intercept sewerage from around 190 subsidiary small drains and transport it to the nearest Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to ensure that only treated effluent is discharged into these major drains.
The already existing interceptor sewer between Aruna Nagar JJ cluster up to the outfall of Khyber Pass drain, which intercepts untreated sewage from Sweeper Colony, Magazine Road and Khyber Pass drain, will be made fully-functional by June 2015. The discharge intercepted from these drains shall be pumped to Nigam Bodh SPS and taken to the existing Okhla STP, which has a total treatment capacity of 170 MGD. Metcalfe House, Qudsia, Mori Gate, Tonga Stand, Civil Military drain shall be intercepted into the existing Ring Road trunk sewer which has recently been rehabilitated under Yamuna Action Plan-II. The sewage collected from these drains shall be pumped to Okhla STP through Ring Road SPS and this work shall be completed by June next year. The capacity of the STP at the mouth of the Delhi Gate drain can be augmented from existing 2.2 to 17.2 MGD by constructing an additional 15 MGD STP, said Delhi Government officials.
The move comes after a team of Delhi Government officials visited Gujarat earlier this month to study Ahmedabad’s Sabarmati Riverfront project.On the development river bed, the lieutenant Governor said that the Government has received several representations regarding development of riverbed but the modal adopted by the DDA is the best. He said that the administration was making every possible effort to make the New Delhi Municipal Council area as the solar city of the national Capital.