Jamnagar District News – About First Sewage Treatment Plant

India's first National Center of Marine Bio-diversity (NCMB) will be set up in Jamnagar to promote activities in respect of coastal and marine eco-systems of the country.

Minister of environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh also announced, here on Wednesday, that Jamnagar will be given Rs 90 crore to set up the sewage treatment plant.

For the NCMB project, Reliance has joined hands with the government, said Jairam adding that he had already talked to Mukesh Ambani who agreed to contribute to this project. In this way, it would be a public-private partnership project. The central government would grant Rs20 crore and Reliance would contribute Rs10 crore for NCMB, he informed.

"We don't take care of our coastal areas and marine assets as we should", said Ramesh, while talking on the need to take such initiatives in this direction. He confessed that the governments fell short of paying attention on the 7,500km long coastline of the country.

Activities like research, education and training would be taken up to control pollution and protect the marine life, apart from taking initiatives for the betterment in the life of the communities residing on the costal belt, he said.

Under Integrated Coastal Belt Project of Rs1, 200 crore, the central government has granted Rs300 crore for Gujarat for this purpose, from which 70% of the amount would be spent in Jamnagar District only, he said.

Without naming the state government, Jairam Ramesh said, "I was shocked when I came to know that a big city like Jamnagar does not have sewage treatment plant." He announced Rs90 crore for such a plant for Jamnagar.

Talking about the biggest region of the state Kutch, Jairam Ramesh said that an Oversight Monitoring Committee will be formed for the protection of environment of the entire Gulf of Kutch which would monitor whether any development project takes place on the ecological sustainable ground. The notification of the committee would be out within three weeks, he said.

"The ministry of Environment and Forests also is spending Rs25 crore to set up an Eco Memorial in Dandi in the name of the father of the nation", he informed.