India requires at least Rs 10 lakh crore to clean all its major rivers, Road Transport, Shipping and Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Saturday.Speaking at the Economic Times Global Business Summit, the minister said the government could come up with a Rs 4 lakh crore fund with low-cost financing from institutes such as World Bank that could be used to clean rivers. “If we keep buying cars at this pace, we’ll need Rs 80,000 crore every three years to expand national highways . He said that India would soon get six national expressways, including the eastern peripheral expressway outside Delhi that would reduce pollution levels in NCR. After that, we will inaugurate the Delhi-Meerut expressway.”The minister added that he was trying to reduce pollution levels in the Ganga by half by March 2019. “River linking projects worth Rs 8 lakh have started.

Source: Economic Times February 24, 2018 16:17 UTC