(This story originally appeared in on Jun 07, 2014)

NEW DELHI: Unveiling an ambitious plan to develop Ganga as a major waterway for transport and tourism, the government has decided to make the river stretch between Varanasi and Hooghly navigable by boats while beautifying the major banks and constructing 11 multi-purpose terminals, including one at Patna, along the way.This will be done in a time-bound manner in its first stage of development at an estimated cost of Rs 6,000 crore. The waterway plan will eventually be extended till Allahabad, covering a 1,600km stretch of the river.This was decided by an inter-ministerial group at its first meeting on Friday. It also set up a Committee of Secretaries (CoS), headed by water secretary Alok Rawat , to prepare a blueprint for the Prime Minister 's pet Ganga development project.The committee will submit the river rejuvenation plan to the Cabinet next month. The ministries - water resources, tourism, environment, power and shipping - will pool in their resources to implement the audacious plan, sources said.To begin with, dredging will be done on the identified stretch to provide a width of 45 metres and a depth of three metres to enable transport of passengers and goods between Varanasi and Hooghly on river Ganga in the first stage of its development. Barrages are also proposed to be constructed at every 100 km, which will also work for connectivity across the river.Shipping minister Nitin Gadkari , who chaired the meeting, said the water level between two barrages can also be utilized for fishery so that people including boatman get employment.The idea is to develop Ganga as a tourism destination, means of transport, a boost to fisheries and hydro-power generation.Gadkari said, "A research institute on Ganga is proposed to be set up under the HRD ministry, possibly at Roorkee, and the tourism ministry will take measures to develop tourism along with banks"."The environment ministry will make the river pristine by taking various measures at Kanpur and other places", said the minister.Water resources minister Uma Bharti , environment minister Prakash Javadekar and tourism minister Shripada Yesso Naik were the other heavyweights who attended the meeting.It was decided that areas surrounding the river will be utilized for religious tourism. The tourism ministry will explore options of setting up museums, building Ganga temples, holding light and sound show and distributing memorabilia."The environment ministry will look into the ways to ensure that polluted water does not enter the river and even rural development ministry will be roped in for treating waste water coming out from villages along the river", said the minister, adding the plan will take care of "ethics, economy and ecology".Uma Bharti said Ganga rejuvenation will be a model for undertaking similar tasks in other rivers including Yamuna."Ganga is our priority. The parameters set to rejuvenate Ganga will be the benchmark for other rivers. We need to set one river as a model and the parameters need to be set," she said, adding the plan for developing every river will be "site, season and rainfall specific".She also said she had held talks with different ministers including the power minister on the option to harness the river for hydro power generation while maintaining the flow of the river.Referring to cleaning of Sabarmati river in Gujarat, Bharti said that the model was encouraging, "If Sabarmati can be cleaned, all other rivers can also be made better," she said.