Govt. to set up 20 water recycling plant in Ganga : Nitin Gadhkari

The union government is working ‘effortlessly’ to preserve ecology by establishing 20 water recycling plants along the river Ganges and thereby creating massive employment opportunities, said Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadhkari. He further said that developing waterways will resolve or rather “minimize” pollution.

• The government has already decided to utilize the derived water from recycling plants to 13 railway stations and refinery in Mathura, apart from 13 power projects. Gadhkari also said that the present government is fully committed to eradicating poverty and combating pollution to provide citizens with a healthy environment.
• The Parliament has already given green signal to covert 111 rivers all around the country into waterways and this decision paves way to make use of 35,000 km of waterways for sustainable development across India.
• Gadhkari also revealed that the government is putting more focus on converting “waste into wealth” and has already sanctioned 8% plastic usage in tar for constructing roads. Also, the government is promoting bio-CNG, bio-diesel, electric and environment-friendly fuel to reduce a huge bill of Rs. 8 lakh crore import of crude oil.
• He also said that in Nagpur alone, there will be 100  buses running on bio-CNG and another 50 buses will run on ethanol. Bio-digesters will be on the other hand used in Delhi to convert the city’s waste into bio-fuel and the minister feels that once the eastern and western bypasses and the highway projects worth Rs. 30,000 crore get completed, it will ease the traffic congestion in the city by 50% in the coming 2 years.
• The central government will also soon increase the length of National Highways by another 2 lakh km to help the NHs bear 80% of total traffic. Currently, the NHs have a length of around 1 lakh km out of a total 52 lakh km roads and nearly 40% of the total road traffic. He further added that the government’s expenditure to fix 767 black spots to combat road accidents is around Rs. 11,000 crore. The country accounts for near about 5 lakh road accidents per annum which in itself a huge number. Out of this, a massive 1.5 lakh people lost their lives while another 3 lakh people were mutilated.

(Source: ET)