Context: Recently, Parliament passed a new Inland Vessels Bill, 2021 law that will bring uniformity in the rules and regulations that govern the inland waterways and navigation in India. The new bill will replace the century-old Inland Vessels Act, 1917.

Key features of the Bill

• Unified law for the entire country, instead of separate rules framed by the States.
• Central database for recording the details of vessel, vessel registration, crew on an electronic portal.
• All non-mechanically propelled vessels will also have to be enrolled at the district, taluk or panchayat or village level.
• It enlarges the definition of ‘inland waters’, by including tidal water limit and national waterways 

Inland waters, for the purpose of inland navigation, include any–

• (i) canal, river, lake or other navigable water inward of baseline or as may be declared by notification in the Official Gazette by the Central Government
• (ii) tidal water limit, as may be declared by notification in the Official Gazette by the Central Government;
• (iii) national waterways declared by the Central Government;
• (iv) other waters as may be declared by notification in the Official Gazette by the Central Government

It also deals with pollution control measures of Inland Vessels. 

• It directs the Central Government to designate a list of chemicals, substances, etc. as pollutants.
• As of now, total 4,000 km inland waterways have been operationalized.
• Bill will regulate safety, security and registration of inland vessels.
• Bill provides for a unified law for entire India instead of separate rules framed by each States.
• Bill grants certificate of registration which will be valid in all States and Union Territories. No separate permissions will be required from States.
• Central database would require all mechanically propelled vessels to be mandatorily registered.

Need of the bill

• The restrictive movement of mechanically propelled vessels lies in the jurisdiction of the state government.
• The requirement of endorsements, non-uniform standards, and regulations which varied from one state to another result in the hindrances and hurdles in seamless navigation across the states and development of the sector.

Criticism of the bill

• Bill takes away a lot of rights of the states and vests them in the hands of the Centre.

Inland Water Transport in India

• India has about 14,500 km of navigable waterways comprising of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. 
• It is a fuel-efficient and environment-friendly mode of transportation. 
• Under National Waterways Act 2016, 111 waterways have been declared as National Waterways.
• NW-1: Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System (Prayagraj-Haldia) with length 1620 km is the longest National Waterway in India.

Note: The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is implementing the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) for capacity augmentation of navigation on the Haldia-Varanasi stretch of Ganga (part of NW-1) with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank.

• National Waterways: National Waterways means   an  Inland Waterway of India designated   as a National Waterway by the Government.

About IWAI

• The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) came into existence in 1986 for development and regulation of inland waterways for shipping and navigation.
• The Authority primarily undertakes projects for development and maintenance of Inland Water Transport infrastructure on national waterways through grant received from Ministry of Shipping.
• The head office of the Authority is at Noida.