Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad has ordered officials of his urban development and housing department to ensure that all long-pending projects related to sewerage infrastructure under the Namami Gange programme in Patna must be completed within 2022-23.

The instruction came after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the assembly in March had pulled up Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, the executing agency, for failing to finish such projects under the Namami Gange initiative in the specified timeline.

In Patna, all sewage treatment plants (STPs) construction work will be finished in 2022-23. Officials have been instructed to ensure quality in building such infrastructure under the Namami Gange programme.

Strict action will be taken against those who will break the government’s rules and norms for constructing these infrastructure projects.

Namami Gange programme is an integrated mission, sanctioned by the Central government in 2014 with an outlay of Rs 20,000 crore, to achieve objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation, and rejuvenation of the river Ganga.

In Patna, six STPs and five sewerage networks were to be built, and of them, nine were supposed to be finished by May 2021.

Of the nine projects, only four were finished by July 2021, and the progress ranged from 53% to 93% in others, the CAG said in its report.

The progress was negligible as far as STPs at Digha and Kankarbagh are considered.

Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd failed to stick to the specified timeline for the fulfilment of the works as no STP along with sewerage network achieved to date, and the discharge of sewage in Ganga and its tributaries could not be stopped in Patna as expected, the CAG said.

It also observed that only 16% to 50% of funds were utilised from 2016-17 to 2019-20.

As against the approved cost, only 35.48% of financial progress was achieved by December 2020, as per the report.

Prasad said the uncertainty in the construction work completion of STPs was because of the pending clearances from different authorities, including the railways.

The government has got approvals from almost all authorities, and the construction work of all STPs will be expedited.

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