Mayor Anil Sole recently met Javadekar in New Delhi and discussed the Nag River plan with him at length. "I met the minister on August 25. He said the plan was ready for final approval. It will be Rs 117 crore project," he said. NMC's historic campaign to clean up Nag River had received appreciation from many quarters. Even prime minister Narendra Modi lauded the campaign, especially Mayor Sole for taking initiative to conserve the river while speaking at function to launch metro rail project. Modi had said the sorry state of Nag River had disturbed him and gave his best wishes for cleaning programme.

"I am delighted with the praise from Modi. It was an encouragement to take the campaign to its final conclusion. My tenure as mayor will come to an end on September 5 but I will continue to work for conservation and beautification of water bodies, especially Nag and Pili rivers. I was having many responsibilities as mayor. Now, I will get enough time to do more for Nag and other water bodies as MLC," he said.

Sole added that the execution of rejuvenation plan would bring back lost glory of Nag River. "We cleaned the river and also increased its width. We also corrected the its flow. Now the need is to prevent untreated sewage from flowing into the river. It requires huge funds and would not be possible with NMC's resources. Approval of funds will pave way for rejuvenation and beautification of the river," he said.

NMC sources told TOI, rejuvenation plan would have been approved earlier had NMC prepared a correct detailed project report (DPR). "Centre asked IIT Roorkee to examine the DPR and they suggested 34 changes. NMC officials ensured compliance of all during the visit of IIT team last month. The team also inspected the river. Then IIT team sent in around 100 queries on DPR. NMC is now ensuring compliance with all those queries and suggestions," the sources said.

Sources added NMC's earlier plan gave too much importance to beautification of river banks instead of improving its water quality by collecting and treating sewage pouring into it. "A major part of DPR is now changing. Only one official is looking after rejuvenation of Nag River and lakes along with a few projects of JNNURM. This is delaying the projects," the sources said.

Nag River rejuvenation is very important for not only the water body's revival but also to prevent pollution in Gosikhurd reservoir. Untreated sewage is polluting the dam's water as Nag River water ultimately flows to Wainganga river on which the dam constructed.

Nag River revival gained momentum with TOI-MT's Save Nag River, My City My River campaign in 2013. It was followed by the NMC's cleaning and awareness campaign last year that continued this year too. In fact, the NMC started to take the rejuvenation plan seriously after getting immense response to the two campaigns. NMC had submitted the plan to state government to be forwarded under Centre's National River Conservation Plan in 2008. The estimated cost was Rs241.10 crore then. The state had asked to revise the plan and submit details. The revised plan of Rs 126.30 crore was submitted to the state in 2012. The state approved the plan and forwarded it to Centre. Since then, it was stuck. It was only revived after two campaigns in city.