IL&FS crisis not to impact clean Ganga projects: Official

The ongoing Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) crisis will not affect projects worth Rs 10,000 crore under the Namami Gange programme, an official said on Wednesday.

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra said that roughly about Rs 10,000 crore of projects were either awarded or in the process of being awarded in the next two months.

These include setting up sewerage treatment plants and building a network of sewerage lines, Mishra said on the sidelines of the Infra East meet organised by CII.

"Our projects are backed by the government and for the developers there is not much risk. We are guaranteeing the payments and banks do not see much risk in these projects," he added, when asked if the ongoing crisis will impact the PPP projects under the Namami Gange programme.

"We have got a total of 261 projects worth Rs 25,500 crore in Namami Gange programme.

"On the PPP (public private partnership) and hybrid annuity mode, projects worth Rs 7,000 crore are under tendering process, of which almost Rs 5,000 crore of projects have already been awarded.

"About Rs 3,000 crore of projects are in the pipeline," Mishra said.

He said about 35 projects have already been completed and the NMCG had started focusing on its tributaries. About $500 million worth projects would be tendered out mostly on the tributaries.

Of the 136 Pan India sewerage projects, 20 were in West Bengal worth about Rs 3,700 crore.

Three projects were on the tributaries while the rest were on Ganga.

"In the current financial year, we have spent Rs 2,300 crore so far and it will cross Rs 2,600 crore by end of this fiscal. In 2018, we had spent Rs 1,600 crore," he said.

Speaking on a recent Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report which suggested that some stretches of the Ganga have been "moderately polluted", Mishra said: "They have taken different indicators.

"The most important thing is dissolved oxygen for survival of aquatic life. This is supposed to be at least 5 mg per litre and almost the entire stretch of Ganga, one can get more than that.

"There are certain indicators where more work will be required," he added.

--IANS

bdc/in/mr