A clean, green, economic option
If executed well, waterways can change inland transportation
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s first inland waterways terminal in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The terminal is a part of the first phase of the National Waterway 1 project to ferry cargo from the eastern seaport of Haldia in West
Bengal to Varanasi, around 1,360 km inland. Until about a hundred years ago, the Ganga was a busy waterway that was used for the movement of commodities. But with the coming of the railways, this watercourse fell into disuse. At present, according to the World Bank, India’s freight movement traverses mainly on roads (65%). Railways come next (27%); waterways account for just 0.5% of the movement.
There are many reasons why the Centre is so enthusiastic about the project. First, transporting freight via river systems is much cheaper than using road and rail. According to the World Bank, the cost to transport one tonne of freight over one km for highways is ~2.28. It is ~1.41 for railways, and ~1.19 for waterways. Second, it’s greener. As per RITES Report of 2014 on the ‘Integrated National Waterways Transportation Grid’, one litre of fuel moves 24 tonnes km by road, 95 tonnes km on rail and 215 tonnes km on Inland Water Transport. Third, ferrying goods via waterways is faster than on congested road and rail networks, which slows the movement of cargo, adding to uncertainties, and increasing the costs of trade. Fourth is the pollution cost of traffic bottlenecks.
While there are several positives of the waterways project, any infrastructure development will have environmental costs, and those must be taken into account while evaluating the benefits of the project. One important requirement of this project is regular dredging to maintain water depth. Environment activists allege that movement of ships and dredging will severely impact biodiversity in critical but legally non protected stretches of the river. These are genuine concerns. The ecosystem services that the river provides must be quantified for a wholesome evaluation of the mega project’s actual economic worth.