National Waterways

In view of the large network of inland waterways in India, there is vast potential in IWT to act as an alternate and supplementary mode of transportation. However, so far, in the last 30 years, only the following five waterways have been declared as National Waterways :-

(i)           Allahabad-Haldia stretch of Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system (1620 km);

(ii)     Dhubri-Sadiya stretch of River Brahmaputra (891 km);

(iii)    Kottapuram-Kollam stretch of West Coast Canal along with Udyogmandal and Champakara Canals (205 km);

 

(iv)    Kakinada-Puducherry stretch of canals along with designated stretches of Godavari and Krishna rivers (1078 km);

 

       (v)     Designated stretches of East Coast Canal, Brahmani river and Mahanadi delta (588 km).

 

Due to very little investment made so far on developmentof this mode compared globally and to the road and rail modes in the country, IWT mode remains under developed and its share in overall internal cargo transport remains abysmally low.IWT sector presently has a meagre modal share of 0.4% in India compared to 42% in Netherlands, 8.7% in China and over 8% in USA. This is a great economic opportunity loss to the country.