Connecting India through inland waterways

- Kinjal Yogesh Dixit

India being a peninsular country provides huge opportunity for effective waterway’s transportation. The country is gifted with 14,500 kilometres of coastline, proving to be an economical mode of transportation. The development of waterways is less challenging than the development of roads or railways, as the issue of land acquisition does not come into the picture.

The Parliament passed a law in order to bring uniformity in rules and regulations pertaining to inland waterways and their navigation. The law is aimed at developing India’s inland waterways as a viable mode of transport, more so for cargo. The inland waterways network spreads across nearly 15,000 km across rivers, channels, backwaters, creeks & more.

In 2016, government notified 111 inland waterways as National Waterways of India under the National Waterways Act, 2016. Of these 111, 13 National Waterways are operational for shipping and navigation and cargo / passenger vessels are moving on them. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), a statutory authority in charge of the waterways in India, is responsible for the timely execution of national waterways projects and to ensure improved water transportation in India.

“Based on the outcome of techno-economic feasibility and detailed project reports of the NWs completed, action plan has been formulated for 26 NWs which have been found viable for cargo/passenger movement," ports, shipping and waterways minister Sarbananda Sonowal said. The national waterways project intends to create such large-scale, commercial shipping and navigation systems in all these 111 waterways.

The IWAI under Ministry of Shipping, is developing the National Waterways for commercial navigation. Govt aims at promoting inland waterways especially as a mode for freight movement across India. This supplement has been recognised worldwide as environmentally friendly and economical, especially for cargo.

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RITES conducted a government study in which it was found out that, a litre of fuel moves 24 tonne-km on road; 95 tonne-km on rail and 215 tonne-km on inland waterways. To move a tonne of cargo over one kilometre, it takes around Rs 1.36 on railways, Rs 2.50 on highways, and Rs 1.06 on inland waterways.

India’s inland waterways carry about 55 million tonnes of cargo every year. The movement currently includes the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly, Brahmaputra, Barak, rivers in Goa, the backwaters in Kerala, inland waters in Mumbai and the deltaic regions of Godavari-Krishna.

The speed of development for inland waterways has been incredible. The development work has started on 13 of 26 national waterways that have been found feasible for cargo / passenger movement.

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Civilian travel through inland waterways implies passenger transportation using inland vessels on any waterway, including NWs. Infrastructure developed on NWs with navigational facilities & terminals/jetties may also be used by ferry/tourist vessels.

Financial assistance for building of passenger jetties & infrastructure facilities on waterways in Karnataka has been approved under Sagarmala scheme. The cargo movement of 108.79 million metric tonne (MMT) by inland water transport through NWs has been recorded during 2021-22.

Moreover, a brand-new ship-building facility of Hooghly Cochin Shipyard Ltd (HCSL) was dedicated to the nation at Nazirgunge, Howrah, West Bengal by Sarbananda Sonowal, minister of port, shipping and waterways this week.

The Rs 180 crore facility, is expected to give a great impetus to water transport connectivity to the North-Eastern states. HCSL will be a boost in meeting requirements of new generation, high technology, green vessels to provide further growth in the inland water transport along the national waterways.

The yard will not just enable economic development in close region but will also provide direct / indirect employment as well as the development of MSMEs and ancillaries.

NW-1 covers Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly for a length of 1,620 km covering UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal while NW-2 covers West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh & Meghalaya. Jal Marg Vikas project is a Government of India initiative for capacity augmentation of shipping and navigation on NW-1. This would enable commercial navigation of 1500–2000-ton vessels in Phase 1.