Space Tech to be Used to Help Clean Ganga: ISRO Official

The technology will be used to hasten the process of cleaning up one of India’s biggest rivers.

River Ganga in Haridwar. 

(Photo: iStock)

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) will use space technology for getting better data on the river and help in planning and monitoring projects, a top official said.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General of the National Mission for Clean Ganga, said the NMCG would also make use of the data from the Survey General of India, besides taking help from the Department of Space.

An ISRO official, who declined to be named, said geo-spatial and remote-sensing technology would be used to assess the water quality of the river. He, however, declined to elaborate further.

Mishra said the data will be helpful in better monitoring and planning of projects for the river.

"This would also help in demarcation of flood plains," he said while speaking on the sidelines of an event on 'G-Governance of Namami Gange programme through Geospatial Technology'.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had expressed hope on 30 August, that the Ganga river will become completely clean by 2020, considering the pace of its rejuvenation programme.

He had said most of the 221 projects under the Namami Gange Mission worth Rs 22,238 crore are at advanced stages of completion.

The government's flagship project has progressed well and nearly 70-80 percent of the work will be completed by March 2019, Gadkari had asserted.

Gadkari had said apart from cleaning the Ganga river, attempts are also being made to clean the tributaries and nallas that flow into the main river.