The Hindu Business Line : IWAI plans to build floating jetties along Hooghly River

INLAND Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has plans to construct floating jetties along the Hooghly River, particularly in the stretch between Kolkata Dock System and Farakka, as part of its plan to promote transportation of goods by the river route.

"We will build such a jetty wherever there is scope for one", Mr K. Shankar Narayanan, Chairman of IWAI, told Business Line, here on Monday.

"We've already constructed several such jetties in the North-East, Bihar and other places," he said.

Earlier, the IWAI Chairman inaugurated a floating jetty outside the Kolkata Dock System on the west bank of the Hooghly.

Built by IWAI in association with the Kolkata Port Trust at an estimated cost of Rs 15 lakh, the jetty is to cater to the requirements of barges plying to and from Northeast and Bangladesh.

The initial traffic throughput — mostly exports like cement, fly-ash, etc., generated by the manufacturing units located in the districts of Hooghly, Howrah, Burdwan and other places on the west bank of the river — is estimated at 10000 tonnes a month. However, the Customs facilities will have to be in place once the jetty starts handling imports from Bangladesh.

By constructing the jetty outside the dock system, IWAI, according to Mr Narayanan, has sought to exclude several heads of costs. First, movement to and from the dock involving additional road transportation will be dispensed with; second, the jetty users from the west bank will avoid paying bridge toll charges; and, finally, the labour cost will be greatly reduced as there will be no participation of the organised port or dock labour in the handling of traffic. The user of the jetty will be free to deploy his own labour force. IWAI has estimated that deployment of private labour will yield a daily average throughput of 1000 tonnes at the jetty.

It will charge a berth hire of Rs 500 per vessel per day while the port authorities a wharfage ranging from as low as Rs 10 to Rs 30 per tonne depending on the type of cargo to be handled.

A spokesman for IWAI indicated that a second floating jetty on the east bank, also outside the dock area, would be ready for operation soon. But unlike the one on the west bank, the east bank jetty might be fitted with a conveyor to facilitate mechanised loading and unloading of goods.