Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
One of the largest benefits of the development of a full-fledged inland waterway system is the smooth and cost-efficient movement of cargo, giving a major boost to the economy. Image Source: IANS
To promote Inland Water Transport in the country, 111 Inland Waterways (including 5 existing and 106 additional Waterways) spread across 24 states have been declared as National Waterways (NWs) under the National Waterways Act, 2016.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has recently released the list of 111 inland waterways highlighting the importance of waterways as an alternate model of Inland Water Transport (IWT) supplementary to existing Rail and Road transport, wherever feasible. Further, to promote Inland Water Transport in the country, 111 Inland Waterways (including 5 existing and 106 additional Waterways) spread across 24 states have been declared as National Waterways (NWs) under the National Waterways Act, 2016. The total length of NWs is 20,275 km. One of the largest benefits of the development of a full-fledged inland waterway system is the smooth and cost-efficient movement of cargo, giving a major boost to the economy.
In an interview, Sarbananda Sonowal, minister of ports, shipping and waterways said that, “development of coastal and river shipping, including cruise services, is one of the priorities of the government and that more such services would be launched to tap the country’s enormous potential in this area. Besides promoting passenger traffic on rivers, the development of inland waterway systems would also facilitate trade and cargo services and give a boost to tourism around the areas along its route.”
The chart below shows the movement of cargo (in metric tons) from April to September 2021 and 2022 through the major national waterways in the country.
Source: Inland Waterways Authority of India
The chart shows there has been a massive increase in the movement of cargo by ships through the National Waterways. Around 40,67,453 metric tons of cargo was transported through National Waterway 1 (Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System (Haldia-Allahabad) from April-September 2021. The amount of cargo transported through NW 1 increased to 65,02,873 metric tons between April-September 2022, registering an increase of 60 percent. The highest increase in the transportation of cargo was recorded by National Waterway 4 (Krishna-Godavari River System). The amount of cargo transported through NW 4 increased from 22,72,992 metric tons during April-September 2021 to 57,08,515 metric tons during April-September 2022. This was an increase of 151 percent. The second highest growth in the transportation of cargo was registered by National Waterway 2 (Brahmaputra River (Dhubri-Sadiya). The cargo movement on NW 4 increased from 1,45,271 metric tons during April-September 2021 to 3,36,504 metric tons from April-September 2022, reporting a growth of 132 percent.
The increase in the movement of cargo shows that transportation of goods through the Inland Water Transport (IWT) is now a preferred choice among the logistics transporters. There’s another reason why waterways has seen a dramatic increase in transportation. Cargo movement by inland waterways is the cheapest form of transportation when compared to other modes like airways, railways or roadways. If we compare, transportation through waterways costs only 1.06 Rs/km, as compared to 2.50 Rs/km by road and 1.36 Rs/km by railways. One litre of fuel moves 24 ton/km on road, 95 ton/km through rail and 215 ton/km through the Inland Water Transport (IWT).
The Sagarmala Project, which intends to promote port-led direct and indirect development, as well as the eastern and western Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) are also proposed to be connected to the waterways. The links are being designed in a way that allows goods and cargo to be switched between waterways, DFCs, and road transport. The aim is to link numerous significant infrastructure projects with the inland waterways. The concept of Sagarmala was approved by the Union Cabinet on 25th March 2015. As part of the program, a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for the comprehensive development of India’s coastline and maritime sector has been prepared which was released by the Prime Minister on April 14, 2016 at the Maritime India Summit 2016.
As the above data suggests, transport by inland waterways is cost-effective, environment friendly and cheaper than alternate sources. Till now, India haven’t use its huge network of inland waterways to solve the logistics problem. But in the past few years, the government has realised its true potential and is thus making efforts for the growth of coastal and inland waterways.
