Inland water routeS Battle inaction
The development of inland waterways, considered to be one of the most important projects for the Ministry of Shipping, has been moving at a tardy pace, with little work being done on the ground.
The Ministry had identified about 106 new waterways in 2016 under the National Waterways Act 2016, to be developed over the years; yet not a single waterway has been made operational till date.
Out of the 106 new waterways identified, feasibility study on 52 National Waterways have been con- ducted and only 32 National Waterways have been found to be technically feasible for navigational purposes, while 20 National Waterways have been found to be technically non-viable for navigational purposes by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and feasibility studies of 52 National Waterways have been undertaken by the IWAI, according to a report submitted by the Ministry of Shipping to the Lok Sabha, in August this year. The remaining two National Waterways are being developed by Maharashtra and Nagaland.
The Ministry has also said that at present, development of only seven National Waterways for navigational purposes have been undertaken and these waterways had been identified and chosen in the first phase owing to their lucrative viability.
The rivers identified are Gandak River, Rupnarayan River, Mandovi River, Zuari River, Cumberjua River, Barak River and AlappuzhaKottayam-Athirampuzha canal. Out of the seven, development work in only one of the projects has started, while in four of them, the tendering process is in progress to award contract for work, while details of the other two remained unavailable, the Ministry told the Lok Sabha.
Also, according to the IWAI’s website, the authority has failed to spend a single penny from the sanctioned amount of about Rs 2,417 lakh in the financial year 2014-15.
The IWAI has also failed to award any contract so far in the much talked about water taxi services in Delhi’s Yamuna river. The water taxi services were to start on the 16 km stretch between Wazirabad to Fatehpurjat on the outskirts of the national capital.
However, the Ministry has said that for this particular project, the IWAI has approached the National Green Tribunal for environmental clearances and has been waiting for their response.