IWA to invest over Rs10,000 cr to develop inland waterways: report
06 Apr 2018
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The government will invest over Rs10,000 crore in the development of inland waterways over the next 3-5 years, with aid from the World Bank, says a report in The New Indian Express.
The World Bank will provide Rs5,369 crore for the navigation project from Varanasi to Haldia in the River Ganges, the report quoted Nutan Guha Biswas, chairperson, Inland Waterways Authority of India, as saying.
He said the ministry of shipping will tap other sources for the remaining funds that will be needed for developing 106 notified inland waterways.
“We are undertaking a major project on the Ganges, which is the national water-1. We aim to make the river navigable with 3m draft, 2.5m draft and 2.2 m draft over the stretches so that 1500-2,000 ton ships can move throughout the year,” the official was quoted as saying.
This and the development of the remaining 106 notified waterways with investments of another Rs5,000 crore in the next five years will help harness the potential of inland waterways and make it economically viable,” she added.
She said work on the Ganges has been on since the last two years to develop multimodal terminals in Varanasi, Sahebganj and Haldia to connect the rivers through roads and railways and directly transfer the freight from one source to another.
The Ganges project is expected to be completed by 2020, Biswas said, adding that the nnual movement of cargo on the Ganges, which is around 6 million tonnes at present, is expected to reach 21 million tonnes by 2020.
For the Yamuna River, however, the inland waterways project might not see much development in near future, she said. “We are doing a detailed project report on it. Water is scarce in Yamuna so we really need to be sure how we can go ahead. It is also used for drinking purposes,” Biswas added.
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