The start of Naag River Pollution Abatement Project inched a step further with formal signing of agreement between Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and M/s Tata Consultancy Engineers Ltd. (TCEL) on Thursday at civic headquarters. The consortium led by Tata was shortlisted and later ratified by National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) to act as Project Management Consultant (PMC) for the nearly Rs 1,927 crore project. A period of five-years is envisaged by NMC for completion of the project even though as per agreement a 8-year time is mentioned. The main focus of pollution abatement is on erecting sewage treatment plants (STPs) with plan to treat 72 million litres of water before same is released in the river. Nag river confluence with Kanhan and that in turn drains into Wainganga river on which Gosikhurd Dam is constructed.

 

Due to pollution in Nag River the water in dam was getting polluted and hence urgent need for starting the work relating to pollution abatement project. PMC task is quite crucial as they need to draw-up execution plan for successful implementation of the project which also involves survey and design of new sewage network in Northern and Central Zones of the city. Thereafter the would also have to guide NMC in preparing tenders for the work. Finally PMC would be responsible for day to day supervision of laying of new trunk lines, its integration with existing and new STPs. Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari from NMC and B R Parthasarthy, Sr Vice President, signed on the dotted lines along with officials of NRCD. With completion of formalities, the Tata led consortium would start work on drawing-up roadmap for executing the pollution abatement project that took quite a long to work out. The project has received funding from Japanese Government agency, JICA, and for the same Central Government shared will be 60 per cent, State Government is contributing 25 per cent while NMC will bear 15 per cent of project cost. During this year's Union Budget about Rs 500 crores are kept aside.

 

It may be remembered that NRCD on September 3, 2024, conveyed to NMC its approval to acceptance of bid of Tata led consortium which also includes M/s NJS Engineers India Pvt Ltd., Mumbai; M/s CTI Engineering International Co. Ltd., Japan, and M/s EPTISA Servicios de Ingenireria, Bengaluru, to act as PMC. Dr Shweta Banerjee, Superintending Engineer, Public Health Engineering (PHC); Rajesh Dufare, Deputy Engineer; Ravi Mange, Assistant Engineer; Mohd. Israel, Technical Advisor; G H Virupaksha, Association Vice-President and Sudil Mani, Deputy General Manager, both from Tata Consultancy Engineers Ltd., were also present during the signing of agreement at Commissioner's office. The process to appoint PMC started from January 2024 and it took nearly nine months to wrap it up showcasing the speed with which the Government machinery works. This being inter-Government project, the clearances takes time.