Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has found 25 out of 111 national waterways fit for cargo or passenger movements. The ministry detailed the plans being taken up by the government for better and effective Inland Water Transport in the country, the ministry told in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Development work has already started in 13 out of 25 selected National waterways, which opens opportunities for SMEs in domestic and international trade through these national waterways.
The identification is based on technology and economic feasibility and the Detailed Project Reports on the National Waterways carried out by IWAI as part of exercise to identify and develop waterway stretches that could be developed into complete economic corridors facilitating movement of both cargo and passengers, as reported by Mint.
To promote inland water transport in the country as an economical, environment friendly supplementary mode of transport to rail and road, 111 inland waterways (including 5 National Waterways declared earlier) were declared as ‘National Waterways’ under the National Waterways Act, 2016.Out of these 111 waterways 25 are Inter-state water ways, according to government sources.
The ministry has also introduced other initiatives for growth of traffic on the National Waterways, that include Revision of Levy and collection of fees, enhanced regional trade using IWT model, using standard operating procedures (SPOs) for facilitating the stakeholders to use inland water transport and access the information related to NWs and Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax service for National Waterways which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February of 2021, as published in Mint.
The cargo movement on NWs has shown a 13 percent increase in 2020-21 compared 2019-20.
The ministry also suggested digital solutions for ease of doing business, such as the CAR-D (Cargo Data) Portal. It is a web-based portal for collection and compilation, analysis and dissemination of all cargo and cruise movement data of NWs to the stakeholders.
PANI or the Portal for Asset and Navigation Information is another portal that compiles river navigation and infrastructure information on a single platform.
The portal provides detailed information about the features of National Waterways and assets such as the fairways, infrastructure facilities, cross-river structures, and emergency services for facilitating transportation of cargo.
List of 10 new National Waterways on which development activities have been initiated.
Source : KNN
