A
team
of World Bank and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) visited
Varanasi on August 4 to undertake a survey of the Ganga for the
proposed project. The project to develop National Waterway (NW-I)
Haldia-Allahabad would require an expenditure of Rs 4,200 crore. The
World Bank has been approached for technical
assistance and investment for the project. The Bank had in July 2014
indicated its readiness to support the
project, with an initial loan assistance of $ 50 million, including
technical assistance.
Between Allahabad-
Varanasi and Varanasi-Buxer there are two barrages proposed which is
going to be constructed by a Danish company. A 45 meter wide waterway is
planned to carry cargo ships of 1200-1500 ton capacity. The depth of
Ganga between Patna-Buxer is too low.
The Bank
team visited National Inland Navigation institute (NINI), the first
national institute of the IWAI at Patna wherein Captain I V Solanki,
Project Director gave a presentation about NINI. The Bank team left for
Kolkata by the ship of IWAI on the morning of August 6, 2014. (Friends,
colleagues and conrades from Kolkata alone can share information about
what transpired between state officials, Bank officials and the
officials in Farakka and Haldia). After their Kolkata visit the team may have gone to Jharkhand.
Among
several aspects that has been ignored the tortoise sanctuary, a wildlife
protected zone under the Wildlife Protection Act-1972 faces threat.
| This message as
a follow up of the discussion on the impact of Farakka barrage on the
Ganga in the context of the proposed barrages for Ganga Waterway
between Allahabad to Haldia which happened in Patna on 31st July,
2014,The discussion happened at the Conference Hall of the Bihar State
Disaster Management Authority. A resolution was adopted at the
conference which is being sent to the concerned authorities in the state
and at the centre. In order to protect Ganga and to respond to threats to Ganga from blind infrastructural interventions, corporate crimes and apathy of citizens, a committee for the protection of Ganga was formed following inputs of the participants like Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala, Dr D K Mishra, Safdar Imam Qadri, Dr Kalyan Rudra, R K Sinha, Anil Prakash, Ranjeev, Prof. Santosh, Ram Bihari Singh, Mahendra Yadav, Pushpraj, Kavindra Pandey, Gopal Krishna, Manisha Jha, Anoop Kumar, Satyendra Prasad, Zakiuddin, Dineshchandra, Chandrashekhram, Anshuman Raja, Parminder Singh and other eminent citizens, | ||
| It is quite disturbing that this project is being initiated without learning any lessons from the failure of Farakka barrage. Modi government plans to construct barrage/dams at every 100 km between Allahabad to Haldia. Thus, there is a proposal for some 16 barrages/dams. It should be opposed the way Ganga Expressway project was successfully opposed to ensure survival of Ganga for the coming generations. | ||
This
Rs.4, 000-6000 crore project will get the support of all those who will
get share in this project besides international financial institutions
like World Bank.
Nitin Gadkari, Union
Surface Transport & Shipping Minister who also holds the portfolio
of Rural Development has announced plans to
develop inland waterways in the Ganga from Varanasi to Hooghly via
Bihar. He plans to create multi-purpose terminals for commercial use.
If
this is how Rs.1-lakh crore ‘Clean Ganga’ project plans to move, its
fate will not be any different from the initiatives of Rajiv Gandhi and
Manmohan Singh.
The minister's river consciousness is shaped by rivers of Maharashtra. He has no consciousness of Himalayan rivers.
The
impact on the entire trasnboundary Ganga basin must be examined to
comprehend the cumulative environmental impact of the proposed project
keeping in mind the experience with 2,240 metres long Farakka barrage
across Ganga in West Bengal, roughly 16.5 kilometres from the border
with Bangladesh near Chapai Nawabganj district. Its construction was
started in 1961 and completed in 1975.
The
purpose of the barrage was/is to divert 40,000 cusecs of water from the
Ganga to Hoogly river for flushing out the Kokata harbour from the
sediment deposition without the need of regular mechanical
dredging. After commissioning the project, it was found that the diverted
water flow from the Farakka barrage is not adequate to flush the
sediment from the river and there are regular
land/bank collapses in to the Ganga river due to the high level back
waters of the Farakka barrage. Substantial high land is already
converted in to low level river bed causing displacement of huge
population.
Similar fate awaits the
barrages that are planned for Ganga Waterway project. The silence of the
opposition parties of all shades in these three states in particular is
quite stark.
Ganga Waterway project must be
looked at in the context of Clean Ganga project, the proposed
Interlinking of rivers project and the efforts for safeguarding
Himalayan ecosystem because experience world over suggests that such
projects are first disaggregated to divide people and blunt people's
resistance.
Social organisations, academic
institutions and concerned citizens of Uttarakhand, UP, Bengal,
Jharkhand and Bihar and Ganga basin must join hands to take stock of the
proposed project and its adverse impact besides examining the claimed
benefits from the Ganga Waterway project. There is a need to set up
citizens committees in the cities across 1620 kilometers of Ganga
stretch for regular exchange of information and action plans. The
exercise cannot remain confined to the immediately affected states, it
must include all the states and countries in the Ganga basin across its
length and breadth.
Gopal Krishna
Ganga Bachao Samiti
(Ganga Protection Committee)
Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
E-mail:gopalkrishna1715@gmail.
Twitter:@krishna1715
When will we stop crying ?
ReplyDeleteThe world has gone ahead while we squabble over silly things.
For Gods sake let development happen, the rest will follow.
This article seems more like a ' spanner in the works' than anything else.