RASHME SEHGAL NEW DELHI The ministry of forests & environment (MFE) has launched a massive National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) to revitalise 38 key Indian rivers. Extensive plans for the cleaning and rejuvenation of each of these rivers flowing past 167 towns have been drawn out. The NRCP will address itself to cleaning the Ganges, the Yamuna, Mahananda, Gomti and the Damodar rivers. The budgetary sanction for this project till end October 2009 was Rs 4528.20 crores. The detailed action plan prepared to clean up the Ganga during Phase 1 will cover 25 of the main towns on the banks of the river while the Yamuna Action Plan (Phase 1) will extend across 21 towns. The Gomti and Damodar action plans will cover 15 towns while 71 other key towns will be covered for the other rivers. The NRCP will put in place sewage treatment plants, including steps to intercept and divert sewage. Low cost sanitation projects and the setting up of crematoria will also be given importance a senior forest official pointed out. River front development is being given importance in all the main cities including Varanasi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra and Patna. The ministry is also planning to start a major afforestation project along the banks of the rivers as part of this beautification campaign. The funds allocated for the Ganga Acton Plan in its first phase are Rs 636 crores, for the Mahananda Action Plan are Rs 40 crores, the Yamuna Action Plan for its first phase are Rs 715 crores, while the Gomti has been sanctioned Rs 318 crore and the Damdoar Action plan has received a budget of Rs 4.4 crore. The NRCP admits it is going to have to work specially hard at extra polluted stretches. For the Yamuna, this will mean focusing on the Delhi -Agra stretch for which Rs 530 crores has been sanctioned. The Ganga will be the main focus of this campaign.