Waterways: India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Transporting cargo
Status, as in 2016
Dipak Dash, August 16, 2020: The Times of India
Only 18 national waterways are feasible for cargo movement and 25 others are feasible for ferry and cruise for tourism purpose out of the 106 national waterways notified in 2016, a study by the Inland Waterway Authority of India (IWAI) has found.
Before 2016, only five NWs were notified and cargo movement is operational to some extent on these waterways. These include Ganga-Bhagirathi and Brahmaputra rivers. The government had enacted the Inland Waterway Act in 2016 to give national waterway (NW) status to another 106 rivers and canals in one go taking the total number to 111. Sources said this was done after the ministry was struggling for more than nine years to get a bill passed to declare Barak river in Assam as a new NW.
Earlier, the shipping ministry required a new law for declaration of any NW and no work, including feasibility study, could be carried out. Sources said developmental activities have been initiated in the case of 13 NWs and work is yet to start in the remaining four for cargo vessel movement. A master plan is also being prepared for feasible NWs in both freight and ferry categories, they added.
Based on the feasibility studies and detailed project reports of the additional 106 NWs, the IWAI has found that rivers such as Barak and Kopli in Assam, Mandovi, Zuari and Kumerjua in Goa, Narmada and Tapi in Gujarat can be used for cargo movement.
700% increase in ferrying of goods: 2013-23
Dipak K Dash, February 5, 2024: The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Government's push for cargo movement by inland waterways (rivers and creeks) has resulted in 700% increase in ferrying of goods by the greenest transportation mode in the past 10 years. Data shows that freight transported by waterways increased to 126 million tonnes (MTs) in 2022-23 from 18 MT in 2013-14.
In the current financial year, 100 MT of cargo was transported by inland waterways till December 2023.
"We are confident that cargo transport by March will surpass last year's total and it will be a record. Government has taken several steps, including giving incentives, in recent years to promote waterways as a preferred mode of transportation of goods," said an official.In a written reply to Lok Sabha last week, shipping and waterways minister Sarbananda Sonowal said 32.4 MT of cargo was transported by 12 national waterways in 2022-23 compared to only 6.9 MT in 2013-14, registering a 4.5-fold increase. Till Dec, these waterways transported 22.1 MT. Among these waterways, NW-1 (Haldia-Allahabad stretch of Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system) carried 9.6 MT freight during the current financial year.
Data shows that cargo movement through national waterways in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa showed a steep increase. In Maharashtra, cargo transported by waterways went up by six times - from 10.2 MT in 2013-14 to 63.1 MT in 2023-23 - and in the current financial year it was 52.4 MT till December. In Gujarat, cargo movement went up to 27.7 MT in 2022-23 compared to 11.5 MT in 2017-18. This financial year, till December, nearly 23.5 MT of freight was transported by Narmada and Tapi waterways in the state.
In its bid to promote inland waterways as a supplementary mode of transport, the shipping and waterways ministry has allowed the waiver of waterway user charges initially for three years.
