Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Uma Bharti jointly launched ‘Smart Ganga City’ programme in 10 cities located along Ganga to set up Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and improve drainage network there on hybrid annuity mode on public private partnership basis.

Union Urban Development Minister Naidu and Water Resources Minister Bharti launched the works through video conferencing and were joined in by District Magistrates/Mayors of cities/towns.

• Haridwar, Rishikesh, Mathura, Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Lucknow, Patna, Sahibganj and Barrackpore are the cities/town where the programme will be implemented in the first phase. NMCG has chosen these cities in the first phase for infrastructure development for sewage treatment which would be on hybrid annuity mode based on PPP model.

• the Government will expand the Smart Ganga City programme to other cities including Agra in time to come.

•  Addressing the event from Hyderabad, Naidu urged local governing agencies concerned to join the mission “with complete dedication” and appealed people too to participate in the programme to make it successful.