Centre approves Rs 990 crore fund for setting up sewage treatment plants in Pune

NEW DELHI: To check river pollution in Pune, Centre today approved a Rs 990 crore fund for setting up sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the city.
Speaking to media persons here, Environment Minister Prakash Javdekar said the second stage of procuring approval for the ambitious project was cleared today with the panel considering proposal for "pollution abatement of river Mula-Mutha under National River Conservation Plan (NRCP)".

Mula-Mutha river and some other water bodies in Pune were among the 302 most-polluted stretches identified across the country by Central Pollution Control Board earlier this year.

"The Centre has approved Rs 990 crore for the ambitious sewage treatment project which will deal with health and security of rivers in Pune.

"The second stage of the approval was cleared today. Now, approval from Finance Ministry will come. After that, work on the project will be undertaken," Javdekar said.

The Centre will provide Rs 841.73 crore assistance to the project, while the Pune Municipal Corporation will have to fund Rs 148.54 crore for the purpose.

Under the project, planned to be completed over a period of six years, 11 new STPs will be built at a cost of Rs 611 crore. The STPs will treat 51 crore litres of water for irrigation purpose, the ministry informed.

At present, the total available treatment capacity of STPs in Pune is 477 million litres daily (MLD). However, due to non-functioning of intermediate pumping stations and non-availability of sewerage system in certain areas, only 392 million litres is being treated presently.

The new STPs will help create an additional treatment capacity of 396 MLD.

Besides setting up STPs, toilets will be built in 24 colonies, mainly slum pockets, in the city spending Rs 21 crore and 113-km new sewer lines will be laid, Javedkar said.

"Due to implementation of the project, BOD level in water will be less than 10 mg/litre and suspended solids will be less than 10 mg/litre removing bacteria... fecal coliform and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous)," he added.

Javdekar said the "important" project will be completed as per national standards and will "strictly" stick to Japan guidelines of International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which will provide loan assistance for the work.

The announcement follows a meeting of expenditure finance committee (EFC) which considered the project proposal today.