The USD381 million loan agreement was signed today on behalf of the Government of India by Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and on behalf of the World Bank by Qaiser Khan, Acting Country Manager (India). The Guarantee Instrument will be separately stored.Under the Namami Gange Program 313 projects were sanctioned in different sectors until March 2020 at a total cost of Rs 28,966 crore.
Ganga is India's most important cultural , economic and environmental resource and the Namami Gange government program aims to ensure that the river returns to a pollution-free, environmentally sustainable state. The new project will expand the involvement of the Government of India and the World Bank in making the Ganga a safe , stable river in this crucial national programme.Since 2011, the World Bank has sponsored the government's efforts through the ongoing National Ganga River Basin Project, which has set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) as the river management nodal agency and funded sewage treatment facilities in several cities and towns along the river.
"The first project of the World Bank helped to develop vital sewage infrastructure in 20 pollution hotspots along the river, and this project would help to scale it up to the tributaries. It will also help government strengthen the institutions needed to manage a river basin as big and complex as the Ganga Basin, "said Junaid Ahmad, country director of the World Bank in India.