India has a large network of inland waterbodies, like the backwaters of Kerala, canals in Gujarat and waterways in Goa, West Bengal and Assam. The total navigable length of India's inland waterways is 14,500km, yet this gift is underutilised.
The total cargo moved (tonne-kilometre) through inland waterways in India is just 0.1 per cent of the total inland traffic. In the US, it is 21 per cent. India moves only 3.5 per cent of its goods and passenger over water. China moves 47 per cent, Japan 44 per cent, South Korea 43 per cent and some EU countries up to 40 per cent.
The Narendra Modi government is developing national waterways to cut logistics cost, manufacturing costs, carbon emission and road accidents. The initiative will also help develop smart townships on rivers. Travelling by water costs less. By road, the cost is Rs 1.50 per kilometre. By rail, it is one rupee, and by water it is only 25 paise. The Centre intends to increase the volume of cargo transported by water from 972 million tonnes to 2,500 billion tonnes by 2025.
The Centre also aims to raise Rs 1 lakh crore to fund projects which will provide low-cost river transport. Other than budgetary provisions, fund sources include a 050,000-crore loan from the World Bank, investment of profits from shipping PSUs into a subsidiary company and obtaining dollar loans at cheaper rates.
State governments will have a 26 per cent stake in the development of waterways; the Centre will bear the rest of the cost. A survey is going on to restart traffic in the Buckingham canal, which links Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, by December 2017. Once the Yamuna is cleared for traffic in the next two years, catamarans can shuttle tourists from Delhi to the Taj Mahal.
Work has started on the Rs 4,200-crore World Bank-assisted project to boost water traffic between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Haldia in West Bengal. This waterway will later stretch to Allahabad and Kanpur. The Centre aims to set up 30 inland ports on the Ganga alone. Natural gas terminals will be built on waterways to cut fuel costs further.
Illustration: Bhaskaran
The Centre has approved transfer of 14.86 hectares from the Farakka barrage project and ministry of water resources to the Inland Waterways Authority of India. The land will be used to build a new navigational lock parallel to existing lock at Farakka.
The Centre is in talks with states for dredging rivers for free. In return, states would give the dredged sand for constructing highways. Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Delhi have approved the idea in principle.
Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari recently inaugurated India's first river information system. The RIS for the Ganga will track traffic and transport processes, and facilitate exchange of information between waterway operators and users. It will boost navigation safety in ports and rivers, and reduce collisions.
RIS is being implemented in three phases. Phase I from Sagar to Farakka has been completed at a cost of Rs 26 crore. Phase II (Farakka to Patna) will cover 410km at an estimated cost of Rs 15.89 crore. Phase III (Patna to Varanasi) will cover 356km at an estimated cost of Rs 14.49 crore.
India has 12 major ports and 200 non-major ports. The Centre intends to develop three more major ports—Colachel in Tamil Nadu, Sagar Island in West Bengal and Dahanu in Maharashtra. Five new waterways planned are on the rivers Ganga, Brahmaputra and Mahanadi, the Buckingham Canal and Kerala backwaters. The bill to convert 101 other rivers into waterways was passed by Parliament recently. There are also plans to develop 1,300 islands and 280 lighthouses as tourism spots, and to recyle water in ports.
When a mid-sized barge has the dry-cargo capacity equivalent to 50 trucks or more than 10 railcars, why wouldn't we choose waterways over road or rail?
