In a far-reaching move to make the Ganges River pollution-free, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced that 500 petrol and diesel boats were converted to run on environmentally-friendly CNG. The country’s first floating CNG station, built by GAIL (India) Limited, was also launched in the ceremony that took place in Varanasi, a city on the Ganges River in northern India.
The conversion of the boats to run on CNG was carried out under GAIL’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiative in association with Varanasi Nagar Nigam. VNN appointed Varanasi Smart City as coordinator of the project while Mecon India is providing engineering and consultancy services for the conversion. The boats are being refueled from GAIL’s floating CNG station at Namo Ghat.
Many of the boats present across the various ‘ghats’ of the Ganges River are used by tourists when they visit the holy city Varanasi. However, leakage and exhaust from conventional fuels is a major concern that affects the water quality and marine life of the Ganges.
While 500 boats have been converted to CNG so far, work is going on at a fast pace to convert the other boats to the clean fuel too, reported state-owned DD News.
