Inland Water Transport System for the Northeast

Context: Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways recently received the maiden voyage of food-grains from Patna to Pandu via Bangladesh in Guwahati. 

• The occasion is believed to have taken inland water transport, on two of India’s largest river systems, to the future.

Why is a Ganga-Brahmaputra cargo vessel in focus?

• There is nothing unusual about a cargo vessel setting sail from or docking at any river port.
• This has rekindled hope for the inland water transport system which the landlocked northeast depended on heavily before India’s independence in 1947.

Inland water service: A necessity for the NE

• Seamless cargo transportation has been a necessity for the northeast.
• Around Independence, Assam’s per capita income was the highest in the country.
• This was primarily because of access for its tea, timber, coal and oil industries to seaports on the Bay of Bengal via the Brahmaputra and the Barak River (southern Assam) systems.
• Ferry services continued sporadically after 1947 but stopped after the 1965 war with Pakistan, as Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan then.
• The scenario changed after the river routes were cut off and rail and road through the “Chicken’s Neck”, a narrow strip in West Bengal, became costlier alternatives.
• The start of cargo movement through the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route is going to provide the business community a viable, economic and ecological alternative.

How did the water cargo service through Bangladesh come about?

• The resumption of cargo transport service through the waterways in Bangladesh has come at a cost since the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade was signed between the two countries.
• India has invested 80% of Rs 305.84 crore to improve the navigability of the two stretches of the IBP (Indo-Bangladesh Protocol) routes — Sirajganj-Daikhowa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj in Bangladesh.
• The seven-year dredging project on these two stretches till 2026 is expected to yield seamless navigation to the north-eastern region.
• With this, the distance between NW1 and NW2 will reduce by almost 1,000 km once the IBP routes are cleared for navigation.

Inland Waterways in India
Inland Water Transport (IWT) is a fuel efficient, environment friendly and cost-effective mode of transport.

• Authority: Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) was constituted in October 1986.
• Aim: For the development and regulation of inland waterways for shipping and navigation.

Jurisdiction: National Waterways (NW) come under the purview of Central Government while rest of waterways remain in the purview of respective State Government. NW include:

• Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly
• Sadiya-Dhubri stretch of river Brahmaputra
• Kollam-Kottapuram stretch of West Coast Canal

Legislation: The National Waterways Act, 2016, was significant in improving inland waterways.
Scope

• India has about 14,500 km of navigable waterways, which comprise of rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks, etc.
• About 55 million tons of cargo are being moved annually by Inland Water Transport (IWT).

Currently, the operations are restricted to:

• Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River
• the Brahmaputra
• the Barak River
• the rivers in Goa
• the backwaters in Kerala
• inland waters in Mumbai
• the deltaic regions of the Godavari-Krishna rivers

Implementation Challenges

• The channel draft of the national waterways is not uniform at 2 meters throughout the year, as is required.
• Seasonal nature of some rivers hinders navigability through the year.
• The identified waterways require intensive capital and maintenance dredging, which could be resisted by the local community on environmental grounds and displacement fears.
• Local government would be inadequate to overlook into the other competing uses of water such as electricity generation.
• The jurisdiction of Central government is limited to shipping and navigation in National Waterways.
• Utilisation/sailing of vessels, in other waterways, is within the ambit of respective state governments.
• The diverse challenges posed by the riverine systems require micro-level analysis to determine the feasibility prior to the implementation.