An Indian engineering consultancy firm has won a prestigious environmental award in Singapore for treating sewage and improving the ecology of the Ganga river in Varanasi. Pune-based NJS Engineers Private Limited, which is working on the Japan International Cooperation Agency-assisted Ganga Action Plan-II at Varanasi, received the “Be Inspired” BIM Advancement in Environmental Award yesterday.

Ganga cleaning project

The Ganga cleaning project, worth Rs 496.90 crore, is to improve water quality and river ecology as well as to stop pollution from the Ganga river and its tributary the Varuna river. The date of its completion is July 31, 2018. “The scope of work is to intercept, divert and treat the increased domestic sewage generated,” head of Information Technology Enabled Services at NJS Rohit Dembi said at the Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure 2017 conference. The existing sewerage facilities, oldest of which installed in 1917, was designed to handle 102 million litres per day (MLD) sewage while present generation in Varanasi is about 300 MLD.

Therefore, 67 per cent untreated sewage discharged into the Ganga river, either directly or via the Varuna river before the commission of this project, Dembi said. NJS, the only finalist from India at the awards, is a joint venture of NJS Consultants of Japan, and India’s ICRA Management Consulting Services as well as Tata Consulting Engineers. The company decided the winner out of over 400 nominations submitted by groups from more than 50 countries, said Bentley Systems Inc, the organisers of the awards and conference.