Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel Tuesday traversed a 11-km navigable stretch of the Yamuna between Kashmere Gate ISBT and ITO Barrage on the Navy boat. They were accompanied by religious figures from various faiths. The stretch, which was successfully assessed to be fit for navigation by the Indian Navy a little over a week ago, is envisaged as a waterway for people and movement of cargo in the future. This, L-G House officials said, sprang from a bid to make the river navigable for use as recreation and public transportation. According to L-G House officials, Saxena and Goel, accompanied by senior government officials, also took stock of cleaning work undertaken on the floodplains of the river under directions of the High-Level Committee (HLC) constituted by the NGT in January. Inspected the navigable stretch of Yamuna between ISBT to ITO barrage along with Hon'ble Chairman, NGT, Justice AK Goel. The navigability has been recently ascertained by the boat from Indian Navy. Efforts at rejuvenation of Yamuna have slowly but surely started showing results. pic.twitter.com/G1nbAWkX7r — LG Delhi (@LtGovDelhi) July 4, 2023 The committee has been monitoring the rejuvenation of Yamuna on the basis of eight different parameters such as cleaning and restoration of the floodplains and desilting of sewerage in the river and on its banks. Work related to the restoration of the floodplains from Wazirabad to the ITO Barrage, under the first phase, began in February and has since been completed. Cleaning operations on the stretch between the ITO Barrage and Okhla are now under way. “Cleaning work on the 11-km stretch till the ITO Barrage has been successfully completed and it is for anyone to see. Any long-term solution to the rejuvenation of the Yamuna will have to involve residents of Delhi and once the waterway becomes fully navigable, citizens can start involving themselves at a physical level with the river,” Saxena said. The L-G sought to stress that efforts at rejuvenating the river had slowly, but surely, started showing encouraging results. He said this is now evident in the physical appearance of the ghats as well as the quality of the water if compared on an year-to-year basis.
