Parliament on Wednesday passed a Bill to convert 111 rivers across the country into National Waterways, a move that would boost movement of goods and passengers via rivers and expectedly reduce the transportation costs substantially. The National Waterways Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha while lok Sabha had approved the Bill last year moved by Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari.
The Bill provides for enacting a central legislation to declare 106 additional inland waterways as the national waterways in addition to five existing national waterways.
Allaying fears of the State Governments that the new law will infringe upon their rights, Gadkari said the Bill will infact boost the maritime trade of the States and augment their economy. He regretted that the waterways had taken a backseat in India, with only 3.5 per cent of trade being done through the mode here as against 47 per cent in China, 40 per cent in Europe, 44 per cent in Japan and Korea and 35 per cent in Bangladesh.
He said logistic cost was as high as 18 per cent in India and an industrialist had rightly pointed out to the Prime Minister that transporting things from Mumbai to london was less expensive and easy in comparison to transportation to Delhi from Mumbai. Responding to contention by some members that these were here tall claims, the Minister asserted that he does not make any announcement in the air.
The Minister said inland Waterways is a much cheaper and environment-friendly mode of transportation as it costs only 30 paise to move cargo through waterways in comparison to Rs 1.5 through road and Rs 1 from rail. Inland waterways comprising rivers, lakes, canals, creeks and backwaters extend to about 14,500 kms across the country.
Earlier, BJP MP Chandan Mitra said that riverine transportation has huge potential especially in the commerce side and lauded the Shipping Minister for his vision and dynamism in planning the inland river project.
Talking about pollution control measures, Mitra cited innovations by Kerala river transportation owners who replaced diesel transport boats with solar power energy thus reducing pollution. He also said that waterways would also reduce road accidents.
Mitra also rued to fact that the jute industry and people dependent suffered due to low water level in river Hooghly. “I appreciate the Minister, he has taken the arduous task of reviving the inland water potential,” said Mitra, also reminding the members that once upon a time Patliputra (now Patna) used to be a port. He said that inland water served as major source of communication in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and parts of Bihar.
Mitra also received accolades from Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for remembering a Bollywood number — Ganga maiyya main jab tak yeh paani rahe, mere sajna teri zindagani rahe-—while pointing about the low water level in Ganga in Varanasi. “People can now walk down between the two banks of Banaras in Ganga,” said the BJP MP reciprocating Prasad’s gesture by praising his love for Hindi film music.
Supporting the Bill, Basawaraj Patil (BJP) said there is a need to ensure that banks on both sides of the river are not adversely impacted by the river being converted into a national waterway while Vishanbhar Prasad Nishad (SP) asked the Government to clarify on the PPP model and the participation of foreign companies in it. KC Tyagi of JD (U) asked the Government whether it has considered the impact of such waterways on irrigation and canals. He demanded that the livelihood of the fishermen should be protected.