Clean India drive needs Rs.2.24 lakh crore: Naidu

The Modi government's flagship programme 'Swacch Bharat' Mission by 2019 would need Rs.2.24 lakh crore (Rs.2.24 trillion), its sub-group's convener, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Wednesday.

"The Mission will need a total outlay of Rs.2.24 lakh crore, with Rs.1.34 lakh crore for villages and Rs.62,000 crore for urban areas across the country," Naidu told reporters after chairing the 10-members sub-group's third meeting here.

The ambitious mission is part of the NITI (National Institute for Transforming India) Aayog, the NDA government set up on March 9, to achieve universal sanitation, improve cleanliness and make India open defecation free by 1919, as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary. Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869.

"The nature of the mission will be known after we submit our report to the central government by August 15," Naidu said.

The members favoured the mission to go beyond cleanliness to improvise on the waste management process and promote waste-to-energy plants, with a combined capacity of generating 1,033 MW of power from waste daily.

"We have decided to focus on cost-effective solid-liquid waste management technologies and vermin-composting besides setting up toilets," Naidu noted.

Noting that the country generated a whopping 133,760 tonnes of waste daily, he said efforts would be made to harness it to generate energy.

"Karnataka has the potential to generate 130 MW from its waste, with 30 MW from Bengaluru alone," Naidu pointed out.