In its meeting held on March 2, the panel sanctioned construction of a sewage treatment plant (STP) of 564 million litres daily (MLD) capacity in Delhi's Okhla at an estimated cost of Rs 665 crore.

It gave nod to two other projects for laying new sewage pipelines in Pitampura and Kondli at an estimated cost of over Rs 100 crore, an official statement said.

Of the total projects, 13 will be developed in Uttarakhand, where new STPs will be set up and the existing ones will be upgraded, at a cost of around Rs 415 crore.

The panel also approved a project to control pollution on the Ganga river in Rishikesh at an estimated cost of Rs 158 crore, it said. The committee has also envisaged construction of a new 26 MLD capacity STP at Lakkar Ghat.

Besides, four projects worth Rs 78 crore will be undertaken at Joshimath, Rudraprayag, Karnprayag and Kirti Nagar to control pollution in the Alakananda river, a tributary of the Ganga.

"All these projects will be fully funded by the Central government, including even the expenditure on their operations and maintenance," the Union Water Resources Ministry said.

The committee also gave nod to sewage infrastructure works worth Rs 335 crore in Bihar's Karmalichak and Rajmahal in Jharkhand. It also approved Rs 151 crore project to address the issue of pollution of Ganga in Varanasi.