The Union ministry of environment and forests is planning to expand its Eco-city project to cities across the country, especially those which get a substantial tourist inflow, so as to address issues on deteriorating air and water quality and waste management.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is to conduct studies across the country to identify these and other key environmental concerns in different cities and identify the roadmap to their improvement. It would invest Rs 20 lakh in conducting the study. A schedule for completion is yet to be decided.
The project, initially launched in the 10th Plan (2002-07), covered only the six temple towns of Kottayam (Kerala), Puri (Orissa), Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and Vrindavan (Uttar Pradesh). Sawai Madhopur, Darjeeling and Chanderi were added in 2007.
CPCB Chairman S P Gautam told Business Standard, “There has not been any progress in three of these (originally chosen) cities but work in the other three will be completed soon.”
Financial resources have been a big constraint in reaching the goals. Despite matching grants from states, the money was not sufficient. “The urban local bodies (ULBs) were to go ahead with these projects but because many parameters were not financially met, schemes could not take off. We are now expanding the scope of this project to other non-pilgrimage places,” he said.
The state pollution control boards provided up to Rs 2.5 crore per town, with a matching fund of Rs 2.5 crore from the ULBs concerned for towns or cities with a population of less than 500,000.
Suneel Pandey, fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) conceded that “the programme was not as successful as envisaged”. Adding, “Many cities like Vrindavan did not get as much funds from the state governments. The government has now woken up to reality. Many of the urban local bodies had limited capabilities.”
There have some success stories as well. CPCB officials said there had been good progress in sanitation in Tirupati and Kottayam.
In Tirupati, for instance, water had depleted in the pond in which devotees took a religious dip. The pond was connected to another water body, which revived it. In another case, a solid waste landfill was successfully created and in yet another, a water tank was constructed.
The revised Eco-cities project would also cover newer aspects like environment management of crematoria, railway stations, pollution under control certificates, discharges, waste management and emissions. There will be an additional focus on cities that get a heavy tourist inflow such as Udaipur, Agra, Manali, Pushkar and Shirdi, among others.
The details in this regard would be filled in after the CPCB study is concluded.
In the initial project, the scheme in Kottayam aimed to rejuvenate the Mundar River and Kacherikadavu Boat Jetty and Canal that had severe siltation and pollution problems. The scheme in Ujjain aimed at improvement around the Mahakal Temple and cleaning of the Rudra Sagar Lake, both highly silted and polluted with sewage. In Vrindavan, it aimed at improving the historic core of the town, located around the Rangnath Temple.
The project in Tirupati aimed at improvement of stormwater drains in the northern, southern and western side of the Sri Govindaraja Swami Temple. Similarly, the project in Puri was to improve around the Jagannath Temple, renovate three of the religious ponds, shift garages and automobile workshops and improve the existing solid waste disposal facility.
In Thanjavur town, activity on renovation of old tanks was proposed to be taken up to protect the presently used aquifers from further degradation and to facilitate a rainwater harvesting system.
