India’s rivers, canals and lakes may soon transport additional coal, steel, cement, fertiliser and foodgrain, easing the burden on road and rail infrastructure.

The Ministry of Shipping has accepted a proposal to widen the area of operation for inland water vessels, besides giving States more powers to administer the regulations.

Baseline Based on a recommendation by a high-power committee earlier this month, the Ministry has approved that waters inward of the baseline along the Indian coast will be treated as inland waters.

The baseline has been demarcated by the Ministry of External Affairs according to the norms under the United Nations Conventions on Law of Seas, to which India is a signatory.

The Ministry also has given more powers to individual States to administer inland vessel operations.

It is expected to come out with a formal announcement on this, apart from a new incentive package for coastal shipping in the next few weeks.

P.V.K. Mohan, Chairman of the committee and Chairman of the National Shipping Board, said: “The new notification of the inland water limits will see new vessels opting for this mode of transportation. We have already received applications for 44 new inland vessels.”

The 15,000 km of navigable inland waterways, including canals and lakes, today carry about 75 million tonnes of cargo, corresponding to about 3.8 billion tonne km. This mode of transportation accounts for a share of 0.15 per cent, against 20 per cent in Germany; 32 per cent in Bangladesh; 14 per cent in the US; and nine per cent in China.

To reduce cost It is estimated that a shift of one billion tonne km to inland waters will reduce the fuel cost by about Rs 25 crore and cost of transportation by about Rs 45 crore. “For example, a 1,000 tonne barge is equivalent to about 100 trucks. Our target is to increase the modal share of IWT to 20 billion tonne km by 2025,” Mohan told Business Line.

Inland waterways in India have the potential to carry a variety of cargoes. For example, NTPC’s power plants at Farakka and Kahalgaon require over five million tonnes of imported coal; at present, they are being bought through Paradip and Haldia ports.

As these plants are located along river Ganga (National waterways 1), NTPC is working on a way to bring the coal through inland water from Haldia to Farakka and Kahalgaon.

The Ministry is also working on the possibility of transportation for other power plants in Bihar, U.P. and West Bengal. Other potential projects could be transportation of coal for NTPC power plant at Bongaigaon, Assam; FCI’s foodgrains between Kolkata and Tripura through Ashuganj; and fertiliser on the Varanasi-Kolkata route.

amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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