Barge transportation of imported coal from Haldia to Farakka on the National Waterway 1 (NW 1) is to start shortly. This, after the deadline was extended several times. The 560-km Haldia-Farakka stretch is part of NW 1 — extending from Haldia to Allahabad, a distance of 1,620 km.
A total of three million tonnes of coal is proposed to be transported annually by barges between Haldia and Farakka to partly meet the growing coal demand of NTPC’s Farakka super thermal power plant in West Bengal.
The Haldia-Allahabad section of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system was declared a National Waterway in 1982, long before the National Waterway Act and the Inland Waterway Authority of India came into being. More than 30 years have passed and regular cargo movement on NW 1, considered the country’s most important inland waterway, is yet to start. The state of inland water transportation (IWT) in the country needs no further explanation.
5 national waterways
Five inland waterways have been declared National Waterways: NW 1 (1,620 km), between Haldia and Allahabad on the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly; NW 2 (891 km), between Dhubri (on Assam-Bangladesh border) and Sadiya on the Brahmaputra; NW 3 (205 km), covering three canals in Kerala — West Coast Canal (Kottapuram to Kollam), Udyogmandal Canal and Champkara Canal; NW 4 (1,095 km), covering the Godavari and the Krishna and canals between Kakinada and Puducherry; and NW 5 (623 km), in the Talcher-Dhamra section on the Brahmani, the Geonkhali-Charbatia section on the East Coast canal and the Charbatia-Dhamra section on the Matai — the 90 km stretch from Geonkhali to Nasirabad in West Bengal is also part of NW 5.
There is a proposal to declare the 121 km stretch between Lakhipur and Bhanga, of the Barak in Assam an NW. A Bill in this regard was introduced in the Rajya Sabha early this year. But nothing has happened since.
Goa has a total of 555 km of inland waterways, but only 255 km is navigable through the Mandovi and Zuari. A few years ago, there was talk of declaring the Mandovi-Zurai river system a National Waterway as it is used extensively for transporting iron ore for export through the Mormugao port. But, again, nothing has happened so far.
Mere declarations of new NWs make little sense when the existing ones are either languishing or exist only on paper. Take, for instance, NW2. A quarter of a century has passed since it was declared a national waterway, but there is hardly any cargo movement along it.
At Pandu on the Brahmaputra, a jetty costing around Rs 100 crore was built in 2005. It is, however, being sparingly used. The objective of declaring the stretch as a National Waterway was to facilitate cargo movement by ensuring an average 2.5 metre draft from Dhubri to Nemati (near Jorhat) throughout the year, two metre draft between Nemati and Dibrugarh, and 1.5 metre beyond Dibrugarh up to Sadiya. Nothing has been done to achieve the targeted drafts.
Dearth of traffic
Regular and large-scale cargo movement along the NW 3 appears to be a remote possibility; the route, it is felt, could at best be used for promotion of tourism. Eight cargo terminals, built by the Inland Waterways Authority of India, have been idling for the past few years for want of traffic.
The dearth of traffic is attributed to several factors such as poor navigability of the waterway, requiring dredging particularly at Chavara near Kollam, stiff competition from road and rail and the Kerala Government’s decision to promote coastal shipping by deploying bigger vessels.
There are other problems too — huge fishing nets used by traditional fishermen often block the route and and waste is dumped into the water. The State Government is trying its best to run cargo services, at least in a small way, between Kollam and Kottapuram by the end of this year to ease congestion on the highways.
Experts point out that inland water transportation may not be as cheap as it is made out to be. Extensive dredging is needed to make the waterway navigable. Absence of night navigation adds to time and, therefore, costs. The creation of shore-based facilities for efficient handling of cargo does not come cheap. Finally, the origin and destination of the cargo have to be close to the waterways, else the total transportation cost will be high.
River service Pacts
India has river services agreement with Bangladesh to facilitate cargo movement. The India-Bangladesh Protocol on Trade and Transit has been in force for more than 40 years. Our river route to Assam is through Bangladesh.
The protocol has two components — one for bilateral trade by the river route and the other for transit facility for cargo movement to and from the North-East by the river route which is through Bangladesh.
The bilateral trade, by and large one-way, of mainly fly-ash from West Bengal to Bangladesh is dominated entirely by Bangladeshi. Also, cargo movement to and from Assam through Bangladesh, once a thriving trade, has now virtually come to a halt.
India pays a hefty sum to Bangladesh every year to maintain the navigability of the rivers identified in the protocol, to facilitate both bilateral and transit trade. But only Bangladeshi flag carriers are benefiting from this. India and Bangladesh share a total of 56 rivers. At one point, there was talk to develop these rivers. Bangladesh proposed to involve China, Nepal and Bhutan. India’s response has been lukewarm.
In April 2008, the India and Myanmar signed an agreement for constructing and operating a multimodal transit transport facility on the Kaladan connecting Myanmar’s Sittwe port with Mizoram. The project presupposes improving Sittwe port, developing inland water transportation along the 225-km stretch from Sittwe to Paletwa on the Kaladan, and constructing a highway from Paletwa to Mizoram, a distance of 180 km.