4 min readPaonta SahibUpdated: Feb 13, 2026 09:41 AM IST
After almost 14 months of the work being awarded, the long-awaited rejuvenation of the only site in Himachal Pradesh selected under the ambitious Integrated Namami Gange Mission has finally begun. The River Front Development (RFD) project aimed at revitalising the Yamuna riverfront at Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district — located on the Himachal Pradesh-Uttarakhand border — is now underway.
Cofferdams have been erected within the riverbed to divert the natural flow of the Yamuna, allowing work to proceed in relatively dry conditions; nearly half a dozen high-capacity pumps have been deployed to flush out seeping groundwater and dewater the submerged surface so that underwater concreting can continue uninterrupted. Officials said the target is to complete the bulk of underwater structural work by the end of February, well before the onset of the monsoon season, when the Yamuna assumes a far more turbulent and dangerous form. The total cost of the beautification and infrastructure works to be between Rs 22 crore and Rs 25 crore, spanning three major components — the sewage treatment facility, crematorium construction, and riverbank ghat development.
“We are running against time,” a senior officer of WAPCOS, the Public Sector Enterprise functioning under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, told The Indian Express. “The River Front Development project was sanctioned in September 2024, but it took nearly 12 to 13 months to complete procedural formalities, including obtaining No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the concerned departments.”
The officer said that the principal hurdle involved establishing jurisdiction over the riverfront land. “Himachal Pradesh is a special category state from the forest conservation perspective. Most land adjoining rivers falls under reserved forest. In this case, however, maintenance of the riverfront rested with the Municipal Committee of Paonta Sahib. We ultimately secured NOCs from both the Municipal Committee and the Forest Department in November last year, and construction began in December 2025,” he said.
WAPCOS, which has engaged private contractors to execute the project, brings prior experience from Phase-I of the Namami Gange Mission. The agency has previously developed and upgraded ghats at prominent pilgrimage sites including Gangotri, Badrinath, and Haridwar. The Paonta Sahib site holds immense religious and cultural significance. The stretch being developed lies directly behind the historic Gurudwara Paonta Sahib, a major Sikh pilgrimage centre, and is located adjacent to an equally revered Radha Krishna Temple.
Senior Engineer Ankur Singh of WAPCOS said more than 50 per cent of the underwater foundation work has already been completed. “Our priority is to finish all sub-base and underwater concreting before the monsoon. The high flood level at Paonta Sahib is recorded at 384 metres above mean sea level, so timing is critical,” he said. Ankur Singh said, “The RFD work at the Yamuna ghat comprises multiple components designed to improve both ecological health and public access. These include the construction of a 150-metre-long Aastha Path, a 160-metre bathing ghat, and extensive river protection works. The project also provides for the establishment of a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) to prevent untreated waste from entering the river, along with the construction of a crematorium to facilitate environmentally safer last rites practices along the riverbank.”
“Yamuna is one of the most significant tributaries of the Ganga. It flows from Uttarakhand into Himachal Pradesh before entering Haryana and Delhi. Paonta Sahib is the only site in Himachal Pradesh selected under this phase. We issued the NOC after a meeting of senior officials last year. We were told the site will be handed over to the MC after the completion of work,” Executive Officer Kanchan Bala, MC Paonta Sahib, said.
