Taking the first initiative to clean Ganga, the Centre has put in place special technology to keep the river clean during the ongoing Magh Mela at Allahabad and to arrest tons of filth during the month-long fair. The equipment had earlier been successfully deployed in the River Sabarmati in Ahmedabad and had helped in the cleaning of the waterfront area. “With its proven ability to clean up large surface areas of water bodies, the equipment is ideally suited for the Ganga cleaning operations during the auspicious Magh Mela when lakhs of pilgrims converge at Allahabad,” said an official of the National Mission on Clean Ganga. The deployment of this special technology has been done by Cleantec Infra which provides equipment and services for cleaning water bodies across India such as aquatic weed removal, floating trash skimming, desilting and dredging which is part of the Prime Minister’s ambitious Integrated Ganga Conservation Mission (IGCM) called Namami Gange programme. The machine collects floating waste through conveyors, stores it on board and then travels to the shore to discharge the waste so that it can be transported to the dumping ground. Two hydraulically operated gates are fitted in the front to guide the trash on to the first conveyor and also to prevent the collected material from falling back into the water. The machine is fitted with paddle wheels that allow it to travel in the water and these also help to aerate the water by churning it. Officials of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation said that the long-term vision for Namami Gange will emanate from the Ganga River Basin Management Plan being prepared by the Consortium of seven IITs, first version of which is likely to be available by the end of this year. “We have deployed two Floating Trash Skimmers for cleaning the river of all kinds of floating materials like plastic bags, bottles, cans, food packets, coconuts etc. dumped into the river by humans. These become a visual eye sore and also have a negative impact on water quality,” said Gaurav Chopra, Executive Director, Cleantec Infra, a private entity which has joined hands with the Government in its efforts to clean the rivers.