World Bank to lend $375 mn for India's first National Waterways
The Dollar Business Bureau Inida's first waterways project received a financial backing of $375 million from international lender World Bank. The project is meant to create inland waterway for transportation between Haldia and Varanasi, on the 1,360-km stretch of the Ganges river. The loan sanctioned by World Bank covers 45% cost of the project, being undertaken under the Jal Marg Vikas scheme by the Shipping Ministry. The proposed project will facilitate navigation of commercial vessels with a capacity of 1,500-2,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT). Serving the industries on the banks of river Ganga, the new waterway will pass through four states namely Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh. The industrial cities of Ghazipur, Bhagalpur, Kolkata, Howrah, Patna, Haldia, Allahabad and Varanasi will immensely benefit from this initiative. The development of National Waterway 1 (NW1) will also provide a good ...
Gadkari: Shipping to add 3-4% to GDP
Sairaj Iyer | The Dollar Business Bureau Nitin Gadkari, the minister for shipping, ports and waterways continued to carry the strategic port-led development agenda on the second day of Maritime India Summit. On the first day, the Prime Minister spoke of critical development agendas, and strategic investment opportunities available within shipping and inland water development projects. If the first day was magical, the second day proved to be better with politicians and celebrities gracing the occasion. On the second day, the CM of Maharastra, Devendra Fadnavis, Kim Young Suk, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries - Korea, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Sanjeev Balyan, Min. of State for agriculture, and the chiefs of Indian ports spoke about the future of the shipping industry, opportunities to ...
Role of Private Ports in Nation Building
The past few years have seen a weak world economy and not much growth in terms of international trade. This has meant a difficult time for the Indian port sector, especially major ports. During FY2009-10 to FY2013-14, while traffic at non-major ports grew at a CAGR of 10%, major ports witnessed a decline in traffic. This fall can be avoided with the Indian government coming to the rescue of the ports sector. Mr. Rajbir Singh Bhadana, Commodore (Retd), Group Chief Operating Officer, RAS INFRAPORT PVT. LTD. Capacity at major ports has not seen much growth either. In some instances, traffic has been severely impacted by the decision to ban iron ore exports. While some big capacity augmentation projects have been ...
India, Bangladesh step ahead for inland water transport and coastal shipping agreements
The Dollar Business Bureau India and Bangladesh agreed upon the extension of Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT) in line with the provision of the automatic renewal, as proposed under the India-Bangladesh bilateral trade. According to an official release by the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India, the Bangladeshi side agreed to revert back on the matter after having necessary consultations with the concerned authorities of Bangladesh government. The response by the Bangladeshi side was given in regard to the development of protocol route under regional International Development Agency (IDA) support of World Bank. In the Secretary-level talks held in New Delhi on Monday, it was also agreed that the regular movement of passenger and cruise vessels would ...
