As part of the Namami Gange Programme, 163 projects for various activities such as sewage infrastructure, river-front development, ghat and crematoria, ghat cleaning, rural sanitation, etc. has been sanctioned. Out of these 163 projects, 41 numbers of projects have been completed so far. While trash skimmers have been deployed in 11 cities to collect all kinds of floating waste materials to clean the Ganga river surface, 34 sewage treatment plants (STPs) were inaugurated recently at a cost of over Rs 900 crore. Though the results of these projects in the urban areas are not many significant, Namami Gange Program succeeds well in rural areas. Household and community toilets were built in large scale and as a result all the villages near Ganga have been declared Open Defecation free. Unlike the top-down approach of the GAP, the State governments and the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) have been accorded a prominent role in the planning and execution of the projects under the Namami Gange Programme. For instance, as part of the Ganga Grams initiative, comprehensive rural sanitation, development of water bodies and river ghats, construction and modernization of crematoria were taken up in the villages located along the main stem of river Ganga and have historic, cultural, and religious and tourist importance. Apart from the allocation of the funds from the government, financial and technological resource mobilization from the private sector is given priority. For instance, captains of Indian trade and industry have committed a support of nearly Rs 500 crores for the development of amenities like ghats, river fronts, crematoria and parks in various places along River Ganga as part of the Namami Gange Program. The Hybrid Annuity-PPP model, which is so far prevalent in large scale projects, is adopted for the sewage sector also. The first such project was launched