Work on Yamuna riverfront project to start soon: Mishra

NEW DELHI: Three months after it was announced, work on the Rs 200 crore Yamuna riverfront development project will soon get underway.

The ambitious project, announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in November last year, will be placed before the Cabinet soon.

Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra on Monday said the details of the initiative to beautify the riverfront through ecofriendly methods have been worked out and all the formalities completed.

It will be placed before the Cabinet after Kejriwal returns from Bengaluru where he is undergoing treatment at a naturopathy centre following which the work would start, he said. A five-kilometre-long stretch from upstream Wazirabad has been chosen for the execution of the first phase of the project.

It was announced by Kejriwal in November last year during the annual Yamuna Aarti at Sonia Vihar Ghat.

The beautification will be done by way of creating wetlands with a variety of plants to clean sewage flowing into the river, among other methods, as per ecologist C R Babu’s recommendations.

Concrete will not be used at any part of the project’s implementation, Mishra said.

Subsequently, the government plans to develop the entire riverfront stretch in Delhi and revive Yamuna’s Delhi leg, among the most polluted in the country.