Following Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget announcement in February, the government has identified 19 additional national waterways (NWs) for operations over the coming five years, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said on Friday.
Of these, the most (five) have been identified in Karnataka, followed by three in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
“To promote environmentally sustainable movement of cargo, I propose to operationalise 20 new National Waterways (NW) over next 5 years, starting with NW-5 in Odisha to connect mineral rich areas of Talcher and Angul and industrial centres like Kalinga Nagar to the Ports of Paradeep and Dhamra,” Sitharaman had announced in February.
As of now, 32 NWs are operational for the purpose of cargo and passenger movement.
In the current financial year, the ministry will operationalise NW-49 (Jhelum River), NW-26 (Chenab River) and NW-84 (Ravi River) in Jammu & Kashmir, NW-51 (Kabini River) and NW-90 (Sharavati River) in Karnataka, and NW-88 (Sal River) in Goa.
The government wants to increase the share of water-based transport of goods and passengers owing to its environmental benefits. In the past, concerns over low draft (depth) and instances of vessels getting stuck en route have hindered growth of the sector.
The ministry also runs a scheme giving a 35 per cent discount on charges on inland waterways.
