India is developing its extensive network of inland waterways to increase cargo transport capacity. The government aims to shift 3% of cargo from roads and rail to waterways by developing the Ganges River System (NW-1) as well as other key waterways. Work is underway to dredge rivers to maintain depths for larger cargo vessels, construct multimodal terminals, and implement river information systems. However, challenges remain such as river silting and high logistics costs in India compared to other nations. The development of inland waterways has the potential to provide economic and environmental benefits through a more sustainable transport mode.

1. “India’s preparedness for IWT”.
for
Maritime Spectrum 2017
By
A.V. Pradhan

2. Inland Waterways
• The inland waterways such as rivers, broad canals, narrow
canals, detached waterways, and tidal waters are
considered as one of the oldest economically and
environmentally sustainable modes of transportation.
• However every such waterway has started to give way to
either road transport or railways.
• The cargos carried by waterways are bulk cargo such as
coal, grains, cement, etc. The volume cargo carrying is
desired.
• Thank fully container is a very versatile method to carry
various cargoes and it can be used beneficially on inland
Waterways.

3. Indian National Waterways
• NW No. 1.-(1620 km) Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river
system Haldia to Allahabad.
• NW-2- (891 km) Brahmaputra river system. Dhubri, at the
international border with Bangladesh to Sadiya
• NW-3 – (205 km) West Coast Canal + Champakara and
Udyogmandal canal in Kerala.
• NW-4-(1095km) River Krishna, Godavari, Buckingham, Eluru
– Kakinada canal system for from Kakinda to Puducherry.
• NW-5- (623km) East Coast Canal in Orissa, Hijli tidal canal in
West Bengal + river Brahmani and Mahanadi river system.
• NW-6 – (121km) Barak river in Assam (under active
consideration of Govt)

4. Inland Waterways extended outside
India
• Indo –Bangladesh Protocol Route
• “Kaladan Multimodal transit transport and
Project” has been initiated to establish the
linkage from Kolkata to Mizoram.

5. Indo Bangladesh Protocol Route

6. • ♢ The project will connect the Kolkata seaport
to Sittwe deep sea-port in Myanmar by sea,
then from Sittwe to Paletwa (in Myanmar)
through Kaladan river via boat route then
from Paletwa to Mizoram via roadways.
Kaladan Multi-modal Transit
Transport Project

8. Present Status-Cargo Movement in
India- 2015
1. Road – 54.4%
2. Rail – 34.4%
3. Coastal – 7.0%  Target 15%
4. Inland Water – 0.17%  Target 3%
5. Pipeline – 4.0%

9. Effect of such distribution
• Commercial transport vehicles are almost always
overloaded.
• The overloaded weight is essential part of
commercial transporters, without which the
business would run in loss. Hence the transport is
intrinsically unsafe. (my personal view)
• Overloaded vehicles damage National Highways
(even concrete) and need repairs which were not
planned. Concrete roads are difficult to repair.
• Overloaded truck are prone to frequent
accidents. They frequently fail in ghat sections.
• Being overloaded, emit unacceptable amounts of
pollutants.

10. Alternative
• All rivers are not navigable.
1. Due to shallow draft
2. water speed due to gradient.
• To overcome this difficulty, Canals + lock system
was very common in US . Similar but with
modern techniques, arrangements are used, such
as Panama Canal lock system etc.
• For long routes travel by River, corrections to the
river such as dredging, aligning the river banks
may be required

11. Inland Waterways
• Use of Inland waterways was adopted in
almost all countries with rivers.
• New York – Erie canal was the first canal
• Europe – Formed a commission enable use
waterway transiting various countries
• Japan – didn’t have navigable rivers but
sheltered bays. They fully exploited this
feature.
• Egypt – Suez canal , Nile river navigation

12. Inland Waterways elsewhere
USA
• A mania for building canals swept the country in the early
nineteenth century. The War of 1812 vividly demonstrated the need
for improved transportation.
• Completion of the phenomenally successful Erie Canal in New York
in 1825 touched off the rage for canals.
• approximately twenty-five years later, there were nearly 4,000
miles of canals in the United States. Although most canal
companies failed as their lines were superseded by the railroad,
their contemporary economic impact in augmenting the natural
waterways of the country was significant, and a few of them
survived into the twentieth century, to be incorporated into the
modern waterway network.

13. New York – Erie Canal
• Current version stretches 338 miles from Waterford on
the Hudson River to Lake Erie near Buffalo.
• The canal has 34 Locks and is at least 120 feet wide and
12 feet deep. It has a vertical clearance of 21 feet
between Waterford and Three Rivers (Oswego
Canal junction), and 15.5 feet between the Three
Rivers and Lake Erie. The locks are significantly larger
than those of 175 years ago at 328 feet long and 45
feet wide, large enough for almost all recreational
cruisers as well as large commercial barges to pass
through. The largest vessels can be as large as 300 feet
long by 43.5 feet wide.

14. Recent pictures of Erie Canal
• Old & New Gates Erie canal Motorised Barge “Governor Roosvelt” in Erie
Canal
The construction of a canal stretching 363 miles was an enormous task, especially without the
benefit of today's machinery. The canal would be 363 miles and climb from sea level at Albany to
560 feet above sea level at Buffalo.

15. Inland Waterways elsewhere
Europe
• Europe –European Agreement on Main Inland
Waterways of International Importance (AGN) - a
United Nations treaty adopted by the UNECE Inland
Transport Committee in 1996. The AGN entered into
force on 26 July 1999 and counts 17 Contracting
Parties.
• The Agreement underlines the importance of inland
water transport which, in comparison with other
modes of inland transport, presents economic and
environmental advantages and may, therefore,
contribute to reducing congestion, traffic accidents and
negative environmental impacts in the pan-European
transport system.

16. Requirements for IWT
• The success of the IWT being an economical
and viable mode of transport depends on the
four basic components i.e.
• i) safe navigable channel;
• ii) Navigational aids for day and night
navigation;
• iii) Terminal facilities with requisite cargo
handling equipment;
• and iv) Vessels .

17. Techniques to maintain steady
Navigating conditions
Example of ingenuity, engineering and will
power to commit to Water transport.
Magdeburg Canal, Germany.
• In addition to the bridge, a double lock was
constructed to allow vessels to descend from
the level of the bridge and Mittelland Canal to
that of the Elbe-Havel Canal.

18. Magdeburg Bridge

21. Canalised section of the São João
River,Brazil

22. Development in India
• NW-1 falls within the flat terrain of the Indo-Gangetic plain. And the elevation ranging from 1
to 321 m (3 to 1,053 ft) above MSL. The land is predominantly agricultural with some major
cities of India lying within the region.
• For thousands of years, river Ganga and its tributaries and distributaries have been used for
navigation to transport people and local produce from these agricultural lands.
• Land use within the influential area of NW-1[2]
1. Cultivation (78.9%)
2. Water Bodies (7.21%)
3. Settlement (7.18%)
4. Vegetation (3.59%)
5. Dry River Beds (2.82%)
6. Misc (0.3%)
• On Aug 12th, 2016 Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and
Highways laid the foundation stone of the waterway terminal at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.[3
• ] He flagged off the trial run of two vessels which will carry newly manufactured cars
of Maruti Suzuki from Varanasi to Haldia, West Bengal.[4]
• The NW-1 is being developed at an estimated cost of ₹4,200 crore (US$620 million), with
financial assistance of US$650 million from the World Bank.[2] The 1,620 km (1,010 mi) route
of NW-1 will be upgraded to maintaining the following least available depth to allow for
higher tonnage vessels of 1,500-2,000 tonnage to ply on the route.

23. Present Status
• Environment Impact Assessment of Varanasi Terminal
has been started
• Experimental Car (Maruti) movement carried out
• Coal movement to Farakka Thermal Power Plant is
being improved.
• River Information System to in place shortly (end 2017)
• Expression of Interest for Multi modal IWT Terminal at
Haldia called
• 19 March 2015 – MOU signed between IWA &
Dedicated Corridor Corp.
• Electronic Navigation Charts & Real time Navigating
Software (IWN) for Sagar to Farakka stretch(560) is in
progress

24. Present Status
• Consultation on National Waterway Grid is
undertaken
• Cargo movement data for NW 1, NW 2, NW 3,
Goa and Mumbai waterways collected
• Custom Notification for JR Jetty II, Kolkata issued
• Terminals for NW 3 maintenance contract tender
issued
• Report on Cargo potential and passenger
potential (IWT) to be prepared. Inquiry for
quotation issued.

25. Least available depth on NW 1
Stretch Distance Least Available Depth
Allahabad to Ghazipur 370 km (230 mi) 1.2 to 1.5 m (3.9 to 4.9 ft)
Ghazipur to Barh 290 km (180 mi) 2 m (6.6 ft)
Barh to Farakka 400 km (250 mi) 2.5 m (8.2 ft)
Farakka to Haldia 560 km (350 mi) 3 m (9.8 ft)

26. Work in Progress
• 111 Notified waterways
• 90 feasibility reports are ready
• Allahabad-Patna-Haldia 1620 km NW 1 Waterways
Transport Project cost Rs. 4200 Cr. To be completed in 6
years.
• To make it fit for 1500 dwt cargo ships
• World Bank assistance is in place.
• Main problem – silting and loss of water dreapth.
• Logistics cost in India is one of the highest as compared
with major countries - it is 18% in India versus 8-10%
in China and 10-12% in European Union.[2]

27. Work in Progress
• It is always sited that cost of water transportation in India is
barely 50paise a kilometer, as compared to ₹1 (1.5¢ US)
by railways and ₹1.5 (2.2¢ US) by roads (Questionable
statistics) but is it true? Then why small container ships
plying between Goa and Mumbai are loosing money.
• What were the reasons for recent failure of RO-RO coastal
ship, must be studied in depth
Some of the inland water systems are loosing volumes to road
transport ( eg Sydney Paramatta River Cat services, Canals in
US and UK are used more for tourism and pleasure boating)
Also, as to why in the first place Inland waterways in India
have not developed except at few places such as Kerala.
or Goa must be identified, and addressed.

28. Some Remarks
• This Govt. is serious about implementing Inland
waterways to achieve several goals such as reduction in
pollution, increase of more cost effective water
transport, reduction in Logistic cost in India thereby
enabling India to be competitive in world market.
• From the table in the previous slide it appears that in
view of no water depth between Allahabad to Gazhipur
a water canal will have to be made to enable a loaded
motorized barge to transit this leg of voyage to
Allahabad. Such alternatives will have to be explored.
• Integration of Inland Waterways Canal and interlinking
of Rivers is required to be studied.

29. Some Remarks
• The present plan does not seem to be with
the draft availability and silting at all.
• Difference in Elevation of Allahabad(321 ft.)
and Farakka (39 ft) is 182 ft. This level
difference may require a lock and canal system
at few locations.
• We believe that, far more study is required to
understand the silting and flooding of the river
in monsoon season.

30. Some Remarks
• The implementation of the NW 1 project
involves ingenious approach.
• Within India all resources are available.
Building of Ships, equipment, software etc
should be encouraged to be made in India.
• The Grand plan for the Inland Waterways
implementation should be made freely
available. Today all the steps taken by Govt.
are coming as a surprise.

31. • Thank you for your attention