Mula-Mutha riverfront project to be completed by 2025: Minister

“As India is aiming to establish itself as a developed nation by 2047, the water need have to be fulfilled and state governments should execute plans to achieve it,” Shekhawat said.

He said the union government has identified 33 river linking projects in the country and shared the Detailed Project Report (DPR) with the respective state governments for its implementation. Pointing guns at the Congress party, the minister alleged, “The river linking projects were initiated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, but were delayed during the Congress-led regimes. Now, the BJP has identified the projects and working on it.” The two-day conference of River Cities Alliance (RCA) — a platform for river cities for sustainable management of urban rivers — began Monday in Pune.

Hailing the initiative, Shekhawat said the participation of the cities in the RCA has risen from 30 in 2021 to 107 in 2023.

The conference comes against the backdrop of the first Infrastructure Working Group meeting of G-20 held in Pune last month, where the PMC displayed river improvement and riverfront beautification project among others. The civic body has already undertaken 300 metre of riverfront development near Bund Garden as a part of development of riverfront of Mula and Mutha rivers. It is also working over a project of nearly Rs 1,000 crore to keep the untreated sewage water away from the river. Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) has provided a soft loan for the project.