PM Modi chairs meeting on rejuvenating Yamuna in Delhi

The PM advised that the best available technology should be harnessed to gather micro-level real-time data to measure flows in the drains as well as monitor functioning of the sewage treatment plants (STPs).

Further planning and implementation of pollution abatement infrastructure should be based on this data, the statement said, adding the data must also be used to ensure that existing infrastructure is functioning effectively. He further advised that space technology may be used for this purpose, the CMO said.

In the meeting, the Delhi government was asked to lay interceptor sewers to clean the Najafgarh and Shahdara drains. The project, initiated in 2010, to cut off sewage flowing into the Yamuna and treat it before it enters the river, is yet to become fully operational.

Further, the government was asked to execute a new pipeline network at the Coronation Pillar STP at Jahangirpuri. “Currently, water treated at the STP flows into the Jahangirpuri drain, which then enters the Yamuna. The government has been advised to lay a new pipeline from the STP to Yamuna, so that the treated water goes directly into the river,” said an official.

The CMO, meanwhile, said the urgent need to rehabilitate Delhi’s drinking water system to reduce leaks and non-revenue water was emphasised at the meeting. “It was also decided that Delhi would prepare an Urban River Management Plan for holistic water management and integrate it with the Master Plan of the city,” the statement said.

Action to be taken for rejuvenating river stretches in Haryana and Delhi, as well as the stretch downstream up to Sangam at Prayagraj, were deliberated in the meeting.

The PM also said the experience of the people of Delhi while celebrating Chhath Puja should improve and emphasised the need to create a people-river connection, the CMO said.

On Tuesday, the government held its first Expenditure Finance Committee meeting for 2025-26 and approved a project focused on cleaning the Yamuna. Under this project, the government approved the construction of 27 sewage treatment plants in the Capital.