In what is being hailed as the biggest victory yet for the ‘Namami Gange’ project to clean up the Ganga, 14 crore litres of sewage which used to be released into the river from the Sisamau drain every day is now being successfully diverted to the Jajmau treatment plant, reports Live Hindustan.

Sewage from the drain, which is reportedly 128 years old, used to be dumped into the river through the Bhairo Ghat. While 8 crore litres of the sewage had been successfully routed earlier, routing the remaining 6 crore litres proved to be an arduous task. However, this has now been achieved by Uttar Pradesh’s Jal Nigam and Namami Gange engineers.

The report states that engineers and their pumping machines were stretched to their limits in trying to control the flow of the sewage due to the velocity of the drain. The entire effort had been made more difficult due to an existing pipeline and a British-era drain obstructing the way.

Cleaning up the Ganga has been among Narendra Modi government’s top-most priorities with the ‘Namami Gange’ project having been launched for this specific purpose. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari had earlier announced that the project will be finished by December 2019.