13-06-2025
Funds for 15 sewage treatment plantsunder AMRUT scheme
Fifteen sewage treatment plants (STPs) will be set up in the State under various local bodies as part of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0 scheme.
The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has released its share of the first instalment of ₹5.25 crore for setting up the plants. The plants are being set up under the Jal Hi Amrit initiative as part of AMRUT 2.0 to incentivise urban local bodies to improve the quality of treated used water by ensuring efficient operations of treatment plants and promoting recycling and reuse.
The incentive for setting up the plants will be released to the State in 70:30 incentive structure, based on whether it has achieved Clean Water Credits of 3 stars and above. Setting up the Water Resource Recovery Cell (WRRC) to promote sustainable and circular management of used water and biosolids at the State-level is a prerequisite for releasing the first 70% incentive.
Total allocation
The total amount of funds allocated for the incentive under the scheme is ₹7.50 crore. The first instalment (70%) of this amount has now been released. The funds will be deposited into an escrow account dedicated to sewage treatment to the concerned urban local bodies and must be utilised for specific activities to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the plants.
Modelled on the successfully-running sewage treatment plant at Muttathara in Thiruvananthapuram, the Local Self-Government department is currently in the process of setting up STPs as well as Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) in various parts of the State.
Piped network
The Muttathara plant, with a capacity to treat 107-million litres a day (mld) of sewage, was set up in 2013 at a cost of ₹80 crore. Sewage from around 40 of the 100 wards in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation reaches the STP directly through a piped network, while from the rest of the areas, it is brought in tankers.
