Ganga riverfront project a hit amongst residents in Patna, Bihar

The Ganga riverfront in Patna has become an attractive place for the locals since it has been redeveloped. The project is a hit amongst students and those who like taking a walk along the riverfront.

The project includes a walkway that is 5.7km long and 15ft wide along the 16 ghats in the city. The riverfront now has around 500 benches, green cover, public washrooms, street lamps, etc. 

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Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General of NMCG said, "Patna is also very unique because there we have built a riverfront development along with the ghats. And you have a beautiful promenade where people walk around and perform yoga. Students from Patna University also visit the place to relax and study."

He continued, "It is a very good place for the public to visit. We have already built 16 ghats through this promenade, and of course, the Bihar government is also planning to come up with some more of them. A very big integrated riverfront development project is actually underway in Patna."

Many local residents have appreciated the move and have praised the result of the project. 

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In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first term, in September 2016, the Cabinet set up a Creation of the National Council for River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) in order to discharge its functions in an independent and accountable manner.

Multiple governments, over the years, have taken up projects to clean Ganga, which is polluted. The Ganga Action Plan (GAP) Phase-I was launched in 1985 and later GAP Phase-II was initiated in 1993 with the objective of improving the water quality of river Ganga and was later expanded to include some of its tributaries also. In May, 2015, the Government approved the Namami Gange programme as a comprehensive mechanism to take up initiatives for rejuvenation of river Ganga and its tributaries as a Central Sector Scheme with hundred per cent funding by the Union Government.

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