Centre, Delhi agree on legal entity to clean up Yamuna

NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Union water resources minister Uma Bharti have agreed to set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a legal entity to fulfill specific objectives, for the cleaning up of the Delhi stretch of the Yamuna. The blueprint for the project will be prepared in the next 45 days.

Kapil Mishra, minister for water, Delhi government, also attended the meeting at the Delhi Secretariat on Saturday.

Bharti is said to have accepted Kejriwal's request of convening a joint meeting with the Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu and the Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on the issue. Kejriwal said Union ministries and the Delhi government will have to work together for "cleaning the historic river and reviving its past glory."

The focus of Saturday's meeting was "beautification" and development of the Yamuna river front. Last year, the BJP government had reportedly urged the Lieutenant Governor to replicate the Sabarmati riverfront model for the Yamuna. Teams of bureaucrats from Delhi were sent to Ahmedabad to study the Sabarmati model, but experts had observed that the model was not even worth replicating as the 11-km stretch of the river that flows through Ahmedabad draws channelized water from the Narmada.

The riverfront development concept of DDA was also questioned by scientists as it would mean creating walkways and concrete structures on the riverbed. Bharti had earlier met Jung and said she wanted ghats along Yamuna with focus on Delhi, Agra and Mathura.