Bihar to set up sewerage plants to protect Ganges

The Bihar government will set up sewerage plants on the bank of river Ganges for its conservation and to keep it pollution-free in the state, officials said today.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting with the authorities of the urban development department and the Bihar State Ganga River Protection Authority officials and issued instructions to this effect.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, state urban development department's principal secretary Shashi Shekhar Sharma said the meeting reviewed the progress of the schemes being executed under the National Ganga River Basin Authority for protection of the river.

Sharma said the meeting decided that all the towns on the river bank from Buxar to Bhagalpur should have sewerage treatment system.

Of the towns on the bank of river Ganges, the state government had sanctioned proposed sewerage projects for towns like Buxar, Hajipur, Munger and Begusarai towns and a decision was taken to prepared the detailed project reports (DPRs) for a similar system in the remaining 21 towns on the river bank in Bihar, he said.

The chief minister directed the authorities to accelerate the pace of works for developing and beautifying the river bank in the state capital in Patna with thrust on ensuring standard quality of works, he said.

It was decided to achieve the target of starting the water supply projects in Patna from May, Sharma said.

Deputy chief minister SK Modi, urban development minister Prem Kumar, water resource minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary, chief secretary Anup Mukherjee and others also attended the meeting.