Ministry of Shipping with the Road Ministry is working out ways to increase the share of transport movement on waterways. With focus on increasing traffic on six identified national waterways, which are presently ferrying only 0.1% of total inland traffic, they will plan to expand the plan to more water channels.
“We have a total navigable length of 14,500 kms by way of inland waterways in the country, which exist as rivers, canals, creeks and backwaters. Of the existing length, there is about 5,200 kms of rivers and 4,000 kms of canals,” said an official.
“These water channels can easily be used by mechanised crafts. Freight transportation by waterways is highly under-utilised in India compared to other large countries like China, European Union and United States of America,” he said.
According to the data available with the Ministry, total cargo moved (in tonne kilometres) by the inland waterways annually is just 0.1 per cent of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the 21 per cent figure for USA.
“Cargo transportation in an organised manner is so far restricted to waterways in West Bengal, Goa, Kerala and to a small extent in Assam. We have been roped in by the Ministry of Shipping to ideate with Inward Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to help increase the share of transport through waterways,” he said.
“The Centre wants to develop more terminals along the channels so as to improve connectivity which will also help in boosting traffic. The Ministry of Shipping has so far not succeeded in its efforts to use to existing waterways to its optimum,” he said.
The Government is planning to focus on increasing cargo traffic on National Waterway 1 which runs from Haldia to Allahabad across Ganga, Bhagirathi and Hooghly rivers. Considered as one of the most important waterway — with a distance of 1620 km — NW1 passes through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The other five NWs are Sadiya — Dhubri stretch of Brahmaputra river (891 kms), Kottapuram-Kollam stretch of the West Coast Canal, Champakara Canal and Udyogmandal Canal (205 kms), Kakinada- Pondicherry stretch of canals, stretches of Godavari and Krishna rivers (1095 kms), stretches of Brahmani, Matai and Mahandi rivers (623 kms) and lakhipur to Bhanga of river Barak in northeast (121 kms).