NMCG approves annual master plan for River Cities Alliance

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has approved an annual master plan for the River Cities Alliance, outlining a roadmap of initiatives to be undertaken in 2025. The plan includes a series of capacity-building programmes, knowledge exchange platforms and other aspects of sustainable urban river rejuvenation. A key focus area for 2025 is likely to be the integration of river conservation with urban planning by conducting the River-Sensitive Master Planning training programmes in different states. Further, development of 25 more urban river management programmes is expected to be undertaken as a part of the first phase of the larger mission of developing 60 such programmes across India, in the coming two to three years. Steering committees have been formed in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal to formulate effective plans and assist implementation of the programmes.