The Ganga Action Plan
When Rajiv Gandhi created the Ganga Project Directorate as the authoritative body to oversee the Ganga Action Plan he envisioned a modern bureaucracy, one that would respond to the needs for national development and to the demands of the global market at the same time. The Plan approved by the Government in April 1985 pursued two objectives: to reduce the pollution load in the Ganga and establish sewage treatment systems in 25 Class I cities bordering the river. Shortly after the creation of this authority, the Minister of Environment and Forests began a vigorous campaign for foreign investment, one that eventually pulled in generous grants from the Netherlands and large loans from the World Bank and development banks in the USA, England, France and Japan. While this foreign capital was solicited, the Planning Commission proposed a 250 crore (2.5 billion rupee) expenditure to complete the first phase.
By 1996, the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan was completed and the government expanded its pollution abatement activities by enlarging the bureaucracy. They created the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) and folded the Ganga Action Plan into that Directorate. They also began to create other river action plans (e.g. The Yamuna Action Plan), modeled off the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan.