During the first meeting of the National Ganga Council in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) in 2019, the Prime Minister urged for a holistic thinking process where ‘Namami Gange’evolves to ‘Arth Ganga’.
In simple terms, ‘Arth Ganga’ implies a sustainable development model with a focus on economic activities related to Ganga.
As part of this process, farmers will be encouraged to engage in sustainable agriculture practices, including zero budget farming, planting of fruit trees and building plant nurseries on the banks of Ganga.
Above practices, along with creation of infrastructure for water sports and development of campsites, cycling and walking tracks etc., would help to tap the ‘hybrid’ tourism potential of the river basin area- for purposes of religious as well as adventure tourism.
Almost half of the Indian population lives around the Ganges River belt. Moreover, of India’s total freight, about 1/5th originates and 1/3rd terminates in the states around Ganges Belt. Thus, inland waterway is one of the most important pillars of “Arth Ganga”project.
National Waterway-1 is an inland water transport route between Haldia in West Bengal and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.
The Ministry of Shipping is also developing Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) Freight Village and Sahibganj (Jharkhand) Industrial Cluster-cum-Logistics Park with an objective of creating synergy with Inland Waterways.
The income generated from encouraging ecotourism and Ganga wildlife conservation and cruise tourism etc. would help to generate sustainable income streams for cleaning of Ganga.
