20 proposed National Waterways technically not feasible: IWAI

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has found that 20 proposed national waterways are technically not feasible, a report said. These include five in Tamil Nadu, four in West Bengal, two each in Odisha, Karnataka and Maharashtra and one each in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa besides one jointly in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

“IWAI which has conducted a study on the feasibility of national waterways has found that 20 national waterways are technically not feasible,” a shipping ministry report has said. An expenditure to the tune of Rs 98 lakh was spent on the studies on these, it said. However, it said that national waterways is an alternative mode of transportation and could ease burden from roads and rail, and Jal Marg Vikas Project could play an important role in providing supplementary mode of transportation.

Fuel consumption per tonne km is to the tune of Rs 1.16 in case of waterways, Rs 1.60 in case of railways and Rs 3.24 in case of roads, it said. The IWAI develops and regulates inland waterways for shipping and navigation. The authority primarily undertakes projects for development and maintenance of IWT infrastructure on national waterways through grant received from the ministry of shipping.

India has about 14,500 km of navigable waterways which comprise rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks, etc. The government has earlier approved the Rs 5,369 crore Jal Vikas Marg Project (JVMP) for enhanced navigation on the Haldia-Varanasi stretch of National Waterway-1 (NW-1).