Namami Gange aims to focus on pollution abatement interventions namely Interception, diversion & treatment of waste water flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation / appropriate in-situ treatment / use of innovative technologies / Sewage Treatment Plant (STPs) / Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs); rehabilitation and augmentation of existing STPs and Immediate short term measures for arresting pollution at exit points on river front to prevent inflow of sewage etc. into the river; Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) for major industrial clusters and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) for a definite period etc. Apart from these projects, interventions on rural sanitation, river front development / management, solid waste / pious refuse management, sewerage network, river surface cleaning, afforestation and bio-diversity conservation also included. 

Under Namami Gange Programme till 20th March 2017, 145 projects are sanctioned at an estimated cost of Rs 10,730.71 Crores. Out of these 72 projects are sanctioned for creation of 932.84 million litres per day (MLD) new STP and rehabilitation of 1091.00 MLD of STP and laying/rehabilitation of 4031.41 km sewer network for abatement of pollution in river Ganga and Yamuna. Till date 13 projects are completed which has created 198.13 MLD STP capacity (153.1 MLD for river Ganga and 45 MLD for Yamuna River) and laid 1147.75 km of sewerage network. 

Under Ganga Action Plan (GAP-I) and GAP-II, 1098.31 MLD sewage treatment capacity has been created. 261 projects were approved at an estimated cost of Rs. 462.04 Crore. GAP-I was completed in 2000 at a total expenditure of Rs. 455.73 Crore. All schemes under GAP – 1 have been completed. Under GAP-II, 314 projects were approved at an estimated cost of Rs 591.05 Crore. Total fund released by Government of India was Rs. 522.11 Crore. Later GAP scheme was merged with National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) in 1996. 

Namami Gange (Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission under National Ganga River Basin Authority) programme was introduced in 2014 as an umbrella programme, with the aim of integrating previous & currently ongoing initiatives by enhancing efficiency, extracting synergies and supplementing them with more comprehensive & better coordinated interventions. The Cabinet approved the Namami Gange programme on 13th May, 2015 for Rs. 20,000 crore. Component A of the Namami Gange program comprises of all the ongoing programme including existing projects sanctioned under National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) programme. -WTN