Waterways

Why is in news? Over one thousand waterways being developed in country to make modern cruise ships sail in Indian rivers

Government has said that more than one thousand waterways are being constructed in the country and its aim is to make modern cruise ships sail in Indian rivers.

With substantial development of waterways, India’s cruise tourism sector is all set to embark on a grand new journey.

The honourable Prime Minister stated this while Prime chairing the second meeting of National Ganga Council in Kolkata via video conferencing.

The PM announced that on 13th of this month, world's longest river cruise will sail from Kashi to reach Dibrugarh via Bangladesh travelling 2 thousand 300 kilometer.

Currently, coastal and inland waterways contribute 6% of the country’s freight modal mix, while adjacent developing economies, such as Bangladesh (16%) and Thailand (12%) have a higher share of water-based transport, highlighting the scope for improvement for India.

The exclusive jurisdiction of the Central Government is only in regard to shipping and navigation on inland waterways declared to be ‘national waterways’ by an act of Parliament. Utilisation/sailing of vessels, in other waterways, is within the ambit of the concurrent list or is in the jurisdiction of the respective state governments.

To harness the potential of Inland Water Transport, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) was established in 1986, and since has been working towards development and regulation of inland waterways

In order to increase the significance of Inland Waterways and to improve their efficiency, the Government has identified few important Waterways, which are given the status of National Waterways.

From only five waterways recognised as National Waterways (NWs), the government of India notified 106 additional waterways as National Waterways, by the National Waterways Act, 2016.

National Waterway -1: Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System (Haldia - Allahabad) - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal

National Waterway -2: Brahmaputra River (Dhubri - Sadiya) - Assam

National Waterway -3: West Coast Canal (Kottapuram - Kollam), Champakara and Udyogmandal Canals - Kerala

National Waterway -4: Phase-1development of the stretch Muktiyala to Vijyawada of river Krishna - Andhra Pradesh

Others: Rivers in south India are seasonal and are not much suited for navigation. However, the deltaic areas of the Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi, lower reaches of the Narmada, Tapi serve as waterways

There are some navigable canals also, which serve as inland waterways - Buckingham Canal in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is one such canal, which provides water transport for a distance of 413km

The other navigable canals are Son Canal, Odisha Canal, Damodar Canal