The new NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to embark on an ambitious multi-million dollar sanitation project that seeks to clean up around 1,000 Indian towns besides eliminating manual scavenging, as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi whose 150th birth anniversary will be celebrated in 2019. Tentatively named the 'Mahatma Gandhi Clean India Programme', the project will start from three cities in Uttar Pradesh, including Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, according to people working on the project. This will be the first among six mega projects lined up by team Modi.

According to the party people, Modi believes that waste is wealth, and he will rope in professional companies with machinery and technology. The project will not be left to politicians or bureaucrats and the involvement of private companies and professional management will ensure that it is different from mega projects like MNREGA launched by the previous UPA regime.

A special part of the project is about building two lakh toilets for women in 5,000 villages. The role models for the project are cities like Amsterdam, Singapore, Freiburg (Germany) and Kobe (Japan). The project will be implemented on a P4 (people-public sector-private sector-partnership) model.

Also, Modi had asked his team of over 100 qualified professionals to find out the financial implications of providing urban infrastructure like drinking water, gutter, solid waste management, storm water drainage, roads, transport and street lights in 500 cities first, as phase one of the project. The focus will be on water supply, drainage system and roads as Modi believes every city should be a 'nirman nagar' with excellent drains and roads. Experts have suggested a unique model of people-owned public toilets in the cities as part of the project.

The funding could be divided between the government and private investors, say his team members. The project will have tenders given out to companies abroad for recycling solid waste generated into organic fertilisers for horticulturists to grow fruits and vegetables.

Source: ET Bureau