For centuries, the Ganga and Brahmaputra were India's original superhighways. Before the railways arrived, they carried the bulk of the nation's trade. But for the last hundred years, these mighty rivers have been largely silent, relegated to small fishing boats and ferries, while cargo choked the highways on land.
Now, a revival is underway. The Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) is not just dredging channels; it is installing a digital brain on the water. This brain is called the River Information System (RIS), and it is turning National Waterway-1 (Ganga) and National Waterway-2 (Brahmaputra) into smart logistical corridors.
Driving blind no more
Navigating a river is infinitely more complex than driving on a highway. A truck driver sees the road. A barge captain, however, faces a shifting path. Sandbars migrate overnight, water levels fluctuate with upstream dam releases, and fog can reduce visibility to zero.
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Historically, this made night navigation impossible and day navigation risky. Cargo barges had to anchor at sunset, doubling the transit time between Varanasi and Haldia.
The River Information System changes this. Think of RIS as "Air Traffic Control" for the river.
How RIS works: The tech stack
The RIS is not a single gadget but a network of technologies strung along the river banks:
1. Radar & AIS Stations: Towers installed every 30-50 km scan the river surface. They track every vessel equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder.
2. Electronic Charts (ENC): Just as Google Maps shows traffic, the RIS provides Electronic Navigational Charts. These update in real-time. If a dredging team finds a new shallow patch near Patna, the digital chart on the barge’s bridge is updated instantly.
3. VHF Communication: A dedicated, secure voice channel allows the shore station to warn a captain: "Vessel MV Rabindranath, you are drifting too close to the left bank shoal. Correct course 5 degrees starboard."
The impact: 24x7 navigation
The immediate impact of RIS is the enablement of night navigation.
On NW-1 (Ganga), the stretch from Farakka to Haldia is now fully RIS-enabled. This means a barge carrying fly ash or coal can keep moving 24 hours a day. This effectively cuts the transit time by 40-50 per cent, making river transport commercially competitive with rail and road for the first time in decades.
On NW-2 (Brahmaputra), the challenge is different. The river is braided and volatile. Here, RIS is crucial for safety. It helps vessels navigate the treacherous currents during the monsoon and provides vital weather warnings to passenger ferries, preventing the kind of tragic capsizing accidents that have plagued the region in the past.
The ‘Uberisation’ of barges
The next phase of this digital rollout is the Cargo Owner & Logistics Data (COLD) platform. This is essentially an aggregator app for river cargo.
Currently, a small cement manufacturer in Bihar might want to send goods by river but doesn't know which barge operator has empty space.
The new digital portal connects cargo owners with vessel operators, filling empty capacity and ensuring that barges don't make the return trip empty. This "return cargo" is the holy grail for logistics profitability.
Connecting the North East
For the landlocked North East, this digital river is a lifeline.
The connection of NW-1 and NW-2 via the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route allows goods to bypass the congested "Chicken's Neck" corridor.
With RIS ensuring safe passage through the Sundarbans and into Assam, heavy machinery for refineries and power plants in Assam is now increasingly moving by water.
The rivers are waking up. And this time, they are guided not by the stars, but by satellites and sensors.
The author is MD, Flugelsoft Group of Companies.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.