More than 100 inland waterways to get National status

The Dollar Business Bureau In a move towards development of an alternate mode of transport, the Government of India (GoI) gave its nod for enactment of Central legislation for declaring 101 additional Inland Waterways (IW) as National Waterways (NW) for navigation. This decision taken by the Union Cabinet, not only creates a logistic supply-chain with the intermodal connectivity, but also ensures fuel-efficient, cost-effective and environment-friendly mode of transport. The National status for IWs was also expected to have a positive impact on the growth of nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as the resultant creates new business opportunities in areas of dredging, terminal construction & operation, storage facilities, hydrographic survey, among others. Further, the investments in these business areas will also create huge scope for employment generation and ensures the economic development, along with reducing the pressure from already-overloaded and costlier modes of surface transport. The detailed business development studies for identifying possible business opportunities, quantifying the anticipated investments and employment opportunities, in this regard, were being carried out under Government’s Jal Vikas Marg project, informed an official release. The decision by the government to declare 101 IWs as NW lies on the basis of Parliament Act, under which the Central Government will be able to undertake the development of an IW only after declaring the same as NW. With the declaration of a waterway as NW, the development and regulation of shipping and navigation by mechanically propelled vessels comes under the jurisdiction of the Central Government.  However, rights over the usage of water, ownership of appurtenant land, minerals, metals, sand, among others, continue to remain with the State government. In view of a large network for IWs in India, there is a larger scope for IW Transport (IWT) to play a major role as an alternative mode of transport. However, in the last thirty years, only five IWs have been declared as NWs in India. IWT mode’s share in overall internal cargo transport remains low and the sector’s share is very less at 0.4% in India compared to China (8.7%), Netherlands (42), USA (8%).  

This article was published on March 26, 2015.