National Ganga River Basin Project

• The World Bank and the Government of India signed a loan agreement to enhance support for the Namami Gange program that seeks to rejuvenate the Ganga river.

About:

• The Second National Ganga River Basin Project (SNGRBP) will help stem pollution in the river and strengthen the management of the river basin which is home to more than 500 million people.

• The $400 million operation comprises a loan of $381 million and a proposed Guarantee of up to $19 million. The $381 million variable spread loan has a maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of 5 years. The $19 million Guarantee Expiry Date will be 18 years from the Guarantee Effectiveness Date.

• The SNGRBP will finance sewage networks and treatment plants in select urban areas to help control pollution discharges.

• The Project will build on the innovative Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) of public-private partnership introduced under the ongoing NGRBP.

• Under this model, the government pays a private operator 40 % of the capital cost to build a sewage treatment plant during the construction period; the remaining 60 % is paid as performance-linked payments over 15 years to ensure that the operator runs and maintains the plant efficiently.

• The World Bank has been supporting the government’s efforts since 2011 through the ongoing National Ganga River Basin Project, which helped set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) as the nodal agency to manage the river, and financed sewage treatment infrastructure in several riverside towns and cities.