Naag river cleaning back on Gadkari’s agenda

Staff Reporter

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was back in action as on Tuesday, he took stock of the pending projects, mainly the Naag river project. It was first meeting after Gadkari assumed charge of Road and Transport Ministry in Government of India and it was held at Ravi Bhavan. After being briefed by officials, Gadkari desired Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Nagpur Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA) to jointly work and launch the river cleaning project at the earliest. The Rs 2,434 crore project is aimed at pollution abatement and has already been sanctioned by Central Government. Since last six months, NMC has not been able to finalise the Project Consultant who is going to design and supervise implementation of the mega river cleaning project. Gadkari said officials should start the work on pollution abatement and restore the signature river of city to its original, pristine glory.

At the same time, the Union Minister also took review of the proposed renewal of underground sewage network of city. The laying of new trunk lines and pollution abatement of Naag River are inter-linked. Old trunk lines are embedded too deep underground and at many places they are also damaged. So the laying of new network of sewerage lines and the grey water from that pipelines would pass through sewerage treatment plants (STPs) that would come up along side Naag river. The process is necessary to ensure that only treated water empties into Naag River as only then, the foul smell emanating from the river would stop. All the agencies in city should sit together and resolve the over lapping problem of clearances so that work on Naag river project gets going at the earliest, the Minister desired. He also asked about progress on drinking water pipelines and construction of overhead water tanks. The Amrut Yojana is being implemented by NMC with target of covering entire city with piped network. Also Gadkari reviewed Orange City Street development issue and gave necessary instructions on the matter. Civic body officials briefed about the auctioned plots and further plans for development drawn up by them.

Gadkari also sought briefing on the plan for relocations of wholesale markets to newer place, near Kalamna. The officials of Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) informed that design for establishment of market for Loha Oli, Dahi Bazar, Poha Oli, Anaz Bazar, Cotton Market, Santra Market, Netaji Market are in last stages. Also the redevelopment plan of Dik Clinic was also shown to the Minister. The land acquisition for development of Ramji Pahelwan Road, LIC Square landing of Kamptee Road fly-over, Old Bhandara Road, is also under progress. Gadkari directed officials to rehabilitate all shopkeepers who had shops on Railway Station Road. The meeting was attended by Mohan Mate, MLA; Dr Vipin Itankar, District Collector; Shravan Hardikar, Managing Director, Maha Metro; Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari, Municipal Commissioner; Dr Brijesh Dixit, Managing Director, MSIDC; Dinesh Nandanwar, Chief Engineer, PWD; and other officials.