The ongoing effort to rejuvenate the Naag river has received a major boost with a Rs 295 crore allocation from the Central Government in the Union Budget. The funds will help the ongoing Rs 2,000 crore Naag River Pollution Abatement Project, which aims to stop sewage from flowing into the river by 2032. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has partnered with Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd as the Project Management Consultant (PMC). The PMC will design a new sewerage network for Nagpur’s northern and central zones and integrate it with existing projects in the south under the AMRUT 2.0 scheme. This network will target the 16.58 km stretch of the Naag river and prevent sewage from entering the waterway.

 

The project was approved by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) in September last year and it is officially slated for completion within 88 months. The funding is divided between the Central Government (60 per cent), the State Government (25 per cent), and the NMC (15 per cent). Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd, along with its joint venture partners NJSE Engineers India Private Limited; CTI Engineering International Company Limited (Japan), and EPTISA (Spain), were selected as the PMC after a competitive process that began in January 2024. They will conduct a detailed survey to determine the optimal number of sewage treatment plants (STPs) needed. Currently, approximately 500 million liters per day (MLD) of untreated sewage flow into the Naag, Pili, and Pohra rivers. The NMC and Nagpur Improvement Trust already treat over 400 MLD of wastewater daily. The NMC also generates Rs 60 crore annually by selling treated sewage water to the Koradi and Khaparkheda Thermal Power Stations.