New Delhi: A novel idea to develop tourism along River Ganga – starting from Gangotri, and running through Rishikesh, Hardwar and Varanasi – is being contemplated. To give a sense of urgency, Uma Bharti’s ministry may be re-christened as Ministry for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, which was so far functioning as an arm of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
The first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Group on Ganga will be held this week, with five ministries coming together to pool their resources to draft a blueprint for the Prime Minister’s pet project. The representatives of environment, power, tourism and shipping, besides water resources, will take part in the session.
Tourism minister Shripad Naik, for instance, has been asked to explore the possibility of river tourism. Piyush Goyal, in-charge of the Power Ministry, has been entrusted with the responsibility of looking after ways to harness hydro-electricity. Environment minister Prakash Javadekar has been assigned with the task of cleaning the river, and the plan to set up a national waterway has been placed under the stewardship of surface transport and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari. Mr Gadkari has been asked to prep a feasibility study on the proposed river-route at the earliest. It will be divided into segments for development in a time-bound manner.
The Prime Minister will personally monitor the implementation of this project