India needs Rs 10 lakh crore to clean major rivers: Nitin Gadkari

India requires at least Rs 10 lakh crore to clean all its major rivers, Road Transport, Shipping and Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday.

Speaking at the Economic Times Global Business Summit, the minister said the government could come up with a Rs 4 lakh crore fund with low-cost financing from institutes such as World Bank that could be used to clean rivers. “The Centre can’t do it alone. We need states, corporates, local bodies and citizens to pitch in. We can have CSR and then low-cost funds from institutes such as the World Bank,” Gadkari said.

The minister said that the Special Economic Zone coming up in JNPT in Mumbai would attract investment worth Rs 50,000 crore and will employ around 1.5 lakh people.


Gadkari added that he was looking at introducing e-bikes as taxis so that the twin objectives of making affordable public transport available and curbing pollution could be met. “If we keep buying cars at this pace, we’ll need Rs 80,000 crore every three years to expand national highways. We need public transport such as metrino, double-decker buses and other modes,” he said.

Speaking on introducing e-vehicles and alternate fuel, he said that e-vehicles and vehicles running on ethanol and biofuel would soon replace diesel and petrol-run vehicles.

“These alternate fuel modes are so economical that people would soon move to them. The running cost would be down by more than half,” he added. He, however, said that there was no need for a separate e-vehicles policy as the government has already set standards for vehicles and charging infrastructure. “Policy would just delay the process.

We have already enabled the system,” he said. He said that India would soon get six national expressways, including the eastern peripheral expressway outside Delhi that would reduce pollution levels in NCR. “It will be inaugurated on March 15. After that, we will inaugurate the Delhi-Meerut expressway.”

The minister added that he was trying to reduce pollution levels in the Ganga by half by March 2019. “It’s a difficult target but is achievable.

Maximum pollution in the Ganga is because of sewage from 10 cities. We are building sewage treatment plants in all these cities. Villages along the Ganga now have 100% toilet coverage,” he said. He added that he wants to irrigate arid land through linking of rivers. “River linking projects worth Rs 8 lakh have started. We are interlinking five rivers in the first phase.”