The upcoming third meeting of the Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) in Kochi on January 23 will set the stage for future development along India’s waterways. More importantly, the shipping ministry is expected to provide an update on its measures and interventions in boosting India’s cruise tourism.
The last publicly available data on cruise tourism was 11 months ago in an Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) presentation.
River cruises turn waterways into tourism circuits
In the recent years, river cruise tourism took off on select stretches. IWAI data up to December 2024 showed tourist movements on inland waterways rising sharply after the pandemic, with over 18.5 lakh cruise tourists recorded in 2022‑23 and more than 11.4 lakh already counted by December 2024.
For more maritime and shipping news and views, visit: Maritime, Ahoy!
The last report identified 38 river cruise circuits—7 luxury, 13 budget and 18 local ferry‑type routes—of which 15 were fully operational, and 13 were under active development.
Operational luxury circuits included Kolkata–Varanasi on the Ganga (NW‑1), Dhubri–Dibrugarh on the Brahmaputra (NW‑2), Kottappuram–Kollam on the West Coast Canal (NW‑3), the Sundarbans stretch on NW‑97, and the Statue of Unity cruise on the Narmada (NW‑73), besides routes in Goa and on Chilika Lake in Odisha.
New circuits and infrastructure push
A year ago, IWAI said it completed 49 out of 60 community jetties under the Jal Marg Vikas Project on NW‑1 and developed multiple cruise and passenger terminals on NW‑1 and NW‑2, often with support from the Ministry of Tourism.
Another 47 new cruise circuits were then identified across 35 waterways in 24 states—from the Godavari and Krishna in the south to the Chambal, Beas and Sutlej in the north—pending detailed feasibility and state government tie‑ups.
Cargo moving through waterways
According to the waterways authority, cargo moved on inland waterways touched about 133 million metric tonnes (MMT) in FY2023‑24. They had then set a target of 142MMT for FY2024‑25 in February. By March-end, the shipping ministry announced it hit 145.8MMT for FY2024-25. Accounting from FY2013-14, that comes to a CAGR of 20.86 per cent.
Stakeholders will be expecting the latest official numbers at the IWDC meet, along with an outlook about the current and upcoming fiscal years.
As of 2025, inland water transport still accounted for only around 2–5 per cent of India’s total freight share. The shipping ministry, under Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, has been aligning Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 to lift this share significantly by shifting more bulk cargo like coal, iron ore, fly ash and minerals onto rivers and canals.
Coal, iron ore (including fines and pellets), fly ash, and mineral products together make up a large chunk of the current cargo mix in India, underlining the role of waterways in serving power plants, steel mills and construction activity along major rivers.
111 waterways, 29 operational
As of the latest ministry update in March 2025, India declared 111 National Waterways (NWs) with a combined length of 20,187 km, spread across 23 states and 4 Union Territories.
Of these, 29 waterways were said to be currently operational. By FY2024-25, IWAI maintained fairways, terminals and navigational aids across 4,894km of these operational waterways.
The Ganga‑Bhagirathi‑Hooghly system (NW‑1), the Brahmaputra (NW‑2) and the West Coast Canal in Kerala (NW‑3) remained the backbone of inland shipping, supported by river ports and multimodal terminals built at locations such as Varanasi, Patna, Sahibganj and Kochi.
The latest IWDC meet in Kerala on Friday is set to become the stage for official updates on all these cruise tourism, infrastructure projects and other initiatives on our national waterways.