Urban River Management Plans (URMPs) have been expedited in various cities across the Ganga Basin by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) under the Ministry of Jal Shakti and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), marking a major step towards river-centric urban development. One of the biggest global coordinated attempts to combine river preservation with city development, the project is funded by the Namami Gange Programme.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of making rivers the focal point of city planning and public life is the inspiration for the initiative. The initiative’s goal is to link development plans with river health in order to create urban ecosystems that are sustainable, resilient, and ecologically responsible—moving beyond traditional city-centric planning.
The total number of cities covered by the URMPs in the Ganga Basin is sixty-three, with thirteen cities having their plans finalised so far, twenty-seven cities in Phase-I, and thirty-three more cities in Phase-II. Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal are among the states that are part in the program.
The foundation of the Urban River Management Plan is based on three main principles: social welfare, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Agenda items include regulating floodplains, reducing pollution, restoring wetland areas, improving riparian buffers, reusing treated water, developing riverfronts in an environmentally conscious manner, protecting biodiversity, and involving citizens. These interventions are anticipated to be implemented by cities through community-driven initiatives, infrastructural projects, and regulatory reforms.
Locally adapted river management solutions in towns like Ayodhya, Kanpur, and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar proved the advantages of combining ecological restoration with urban development, and this initiative is based on their successes. These results have inspired a gradual rollout of the program throughout the Ganga Basin.
A number of cities have already finished their plans. These include Rishikesh, Haldwani-Kathgodam, Ramnagar, Gorakhpur, Shahjahanpur, Bijnor, Prayagraj, Buxar, Chapra, and Gaya. To enhance river health and climate resilience, these city-specific plans incorporate novel solutions like bioswales, ecological drain rejuvenation, built wetlands, sponge landscapes, groundwater recharge systems, and blue-green infrastructure.
Beyond the planning stage, the program is now in the execution phase. Urban water bodies in Kanpur are being restored through pilot projects that use LAMAS technology to revitalise the Central Ordnance Depot (COD) Drain. Environmental, social, and economic advantages can be quantified through river-sensitive planning, which these projects aim to show.
The Performance Based Incentive Grant (PBIG) mechanism, which NMCG is supporting through its cooperation with the World Bank, is helping to support implementation. Restoration of wetlands, control of faecal sludge and septage, environmentally friendly riverside construction, installation of riparian buffers, and solutions for river management enabled by technology are all part of the planned projects.
The initiative’s long-term goal is to create a flexible framework for sustainable development and river-sensitive urban planning in India, with the eventual goal of reaching all 97 cities along the Ganga’s main stem.
Image: AIR
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