Japan helping India clean Yamuna: Natarajan

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India is getting assistance from Japan for a programme to cleanse the Yamuna river, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said Monday.

In a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha, Natarajan informed the lower house that the Japanese government would provide India a loan of over 32 billion yen for the third phase of the plan.

"Japan international Co-operation Agency (JICA) has agreed to provide a loan of 32,571 million yen to the Government of India for the 3rd phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP)," Natarajan said.

The minister said the loan agreement was signed Feb 16, 2011.

JICA is an independent governmental agency of Japan that assists economic and social growth in developing countries, and the promotion of international cooperation.

"The government is implementing the Yamuna Action Plan in a phased manned with assistance from the government of Japan. A total of 286 schemes for cleaning the river have already been implemented in 21 towns of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. sewage cleaning capacity of 767.25 million litres per day has been created," she added.