Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari lays foundation stone for inland waterway

Tiruchirapalli/Urban Transport News:  Recently, Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, laid the foundation stone for the development work of Ghagra River as National Waterway (NW) – 40. This will run from Manjhighat at Ganga-Gaghra river confluence to Faizabad/Ayodhya along Gaghra River for a length of 354 km. This project is part of the Modi government’s initiative to improve the inland waterway infrastructure in the country. Also, the current government has passed the National Waterways Act, 2016, which proposed to add 106 National Waterways, taking the total to 111. Apart from this, the government has also proposed an amendment to the Central Road Fund Act, 2000 by which 2.5 percent of the cess levied on high-speed petrol and for the development and maintenance of national waterways, diesel will be used.

The reason behind moving towards more on waterways is justified since waterways are cost-effective, environment-friendly and logistically efficient when compared to roads and railways. And also the cargo conveyance cost is lower because one horsepower of energy can ferry four tonnes by water, against only 150 kg by road and 500 kg by rail. But when talking about reality,  despite such advantages, Inland water transport accounts for less than 1 percent of the total transport share. This entire adequacy in infrastructure partly explains why India’s logistics costs hover around 13 percent of the GDP, while it’s around 8 percent in Germany. Apart from this the development of Inland Waterways will also complement Sagarmala, which is an ambitious project launched by the NDA government.

The main motive of this flagship programme of the Shipping Ministry aims to promote a port-led development in the country by harnessing India’s 7,500-km-long coastline and the 15,500 km of potentially navigable waterways. The development of National Waterways will also enable the success of other Government of India schemes such as Make In India, Bharatmala, Startup India etc.