NEW DELHI: The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has received support from two private investors to develop decentralised sewage treatment plants (DSTPs) as part of efforts to clean the Yamuna river, officials said on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the Delhi government announced the setting up of 40 DSTPs planned by the DJB, with two to be funded under the government’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.
According to officials, one project has already received a commitment of Rs 5 crore investment from a major private firm, and for the second project, meetings are ongoing.
“We plan to get no objection certificates for all the DSTPs by the end of this year. Work is ongoing at the desired pace, and tenders for 13 of these plants will be floated soon,” a DJB official informed.
In areas where large-scale sewage treatment plants (STPs) cannot be constructed due to space limitations, the DJB plans to install 40 decentralised sewage treatment plants to ensure localised waste management.
Currently, the DJB has a sewage treatment capacity of around 600-700 million gallons per day (MGD) across all existing STPs. The government plans to increase this capacity to 1,250 MGD by June 2027.
DJB’s existing infrastructure includes 37 sewage treatment plants, of which 18 are currently being upgraded. To further enhance treatment capacity, the government is also setting up new STPs in key locations.
In Delhi, the Yamuna flows for 52 kilometres, of which a critical 22 km segment, from Wazirabad to Okhla, is highly polluted and has become the focal point of multiple planning and policy efforts.
“The approvals from different departments are coming in for the remaining DSTPs; all 40 projects combined will give a boost of approximately 150 MGD of our sewage treatment capacity,” officials added.