Parliament Question: – Progress in Developing 26 New National Waterways

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways

Parliament Question: – Progress in Developing 26 New National Waterways

Posted On: 17 DEC 2024 3:44PM by PIB Delhi

Status of the development of twenty six (26) New National Waterways (NWs) with progress achieved till 31.10.2024 is at Annexure-1.

Inland Water Transport (IWT) mode is a cheaper mode of transport vis a vis other modes of transport i.e. Road/Rail and modal shift of commodities to this mode may reduce the logistics cost. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is taking several initiatives to enhance inland waterways connectivity in the country for facilitating movement of goods in more efficient and cheaper way. Some of the initiatives are listed at Annexure-2.

To ensure round the year navigability in NWs, the measures taken are – fairway maintenance by way of channel stabilization works, bandalling, day navigational aids, dredging through contracts etc. IWAI has also procured dredgers for carrying out fairway maintenance activities departmentally in certain critical stretches.

The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade exists between the two countries for mutually beneficial arrangement for the use of waterways for commerce and passage of goods between two places in one country through the territory of the other and to the third country. Under the Protocol, Standing Committees have been constituted, which hold meetings at regular intervals to sort out the issues. Joint dredging operations are under going in Bangladesh on 80:20 (80% India and 20% Bangladesh) sharing basis in the critical stretches (Sirajganj-Daikhowa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj) to provide seamless connection to North Eastern Region of India through Indo-Bangldesh Protocol Route.

Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax services have been implemented in Assam, Bihar, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh. The Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax operations are monitored regularly.

Annexure-1

Status of the development of 26 New National Waterways (NWs) with progress achieved till 31.10.2024:

Annexure-2

Steps taken by the Government to increase cargo movement through the National Waterways indicating the infrastructure and policy measures:

(a) Infrastructure measures:

(i) Fairway maintenance works (river training, maintenance dredging, channel marking and regular hydrographic surveys) are taken up in various National Waterways (NWs) for providing a navigation channel of 35/45 m width and 2.0 / 2.2 / 2.5 / 3.0 m least available depth (LAD) for operation of vessels.

(ii) 49 community jetties, 20 floating terminals, 3 Multi-Modal Terminals (MMTs) and 1 Inter-Modal Terminal (IMT) have been constructed on NW-1 (River Ganga).

(iii) 12 floating terminals provided on NW-2 (River Brahmaputra) along with one MMT at Pandu and permanent terminals at Jogighopa, Bogibeel and Dhubri. Four dedicated tourist Jetties have been provided at Jogighopa, Pandu, Biswanath Ghat and Neamati with an investment of Rs. 7.09 crores. In addition to above, Jetties for cruise and passengers have been constructed for Sadiya, Lyka and Orium Ghat in Assam.

(iv) 9 Permanent Inland Water Transport terminals with godowns and 2 Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax terminals have been constructed on NW-3 (West Coast Canal in Kerala).

(v) 3 floating concrete jetties were provided to Govt. of Goa in 2020 and 1 during September 2022 and installed in Mandovi River (NW-68). 4 Tourist Jetties on part of NW-4 (River Krishna) in Andhra Pradesh have been commissioned and 12 floating jetties on NW-110 (River Yamuna) in Mathura-Vrindavan stretch in Uttar Pradesh, 2 Jetties on NW-73 (River Narmada) & tender has been awarded for construction of 2 Jetties on NW-37 (River Gandak) in Bihar.

(b)  Policy Measures:

•           A scheme for providing 35% incentive to promote the utilization of inland waterways transport sector by cargo owners and for establishing scheduled service for cargo movement on NW-1 and NW-2 and NW-16 via Indo Bangladesh Protocol has been approved by the Government. This scheme is expected to divert 800 million tonne Km cargo on IWT mode, which is nearly 17% of the current cargo of 4700 million tonne Km on NWs. The scheme is at a cost of less than Rs. 100 Crore for three years and can be scaled up or modified depending on the success of the scheme. The scheme also aims to start a scheduled waterway cargo service between Kolkata and Varanasi/Pandu using IWAI vessels through Shipping Corporation of India for demonstration effect and to increase trust of cargo movers/owners in the waterway movement.

•           Shift of cargo by PSUs: For modal shift of cargo to waterways, more than 140 Public Sector Units have been approached to plan their movement using Inland Water Transport mode. They have been requested to outline their current status of cargo movement through the waterways and their plan for modal shift of cargo. The Ministry of PNG, Co-operation/ Fertiliser, Food & Public distribution, Heavy industries, Steel and Coal have been requested to advise the PSUs under their jurisdiction to utilize IWT mode as far as possible and earmark certain percentage of their cargo for IWT mode keeping in line the MIV targets.

•           Integration with Ports: World over, waterways are most optimally utilised if they are linked to ports. Kolkata port offers an opportunity of seamless integration with NW1 and can also help in resolving the problem of multi modality. Therefore, Syama Prasad Mookherjee Port, Kolkata has been requested for operation and management of Multi Modal Terminals at Varanasi, Sahibganj, Haldia and Intermodal terminal at Kalughat along with other terminals on NW-1.

•           Cargo Aggregation: The cargo movement on the waterways suffer from problems of multimodality because of lack of industries along the waterways. Therefore, projects for development of cargo aggregation hub – Freight Village at Varanasi and Integrated Cluster- cum-Logistics Park, Sahibganj have been taken up. NHLML, a PSU under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been engaged for development of these MMLPs. The work of Rail connectivity for three MMTs has been assigned to M/s Indian Port and Rail Company Ltd. (A PSU under MoPSW).

•           River Cruise Tourism: To promote river cruise tourism, number of meetings with cruise operators have been organised. Based on their feedback, steps like provision of shore power at IWAI terminals, extra berthing arrangements, etc. have been made. New cruise circuits have been identified for operationalization. A total of 34 Waterways have been identified for cruise movement and 10 have already been operationalised.

•           IBP Route: Indo Bangladesh Protocol route no. 5 & 6 between Maia and Sultanganj has been operationalized recently with successful trial movements.

This information was given by the The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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DS/AK

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