Union Shipping Minister G. K. Vasan will formally inaugurate on Monday Garden Reach Two jetty under the Kolkata Dock System of Kolkata port and flag off from there barges carrying imported coal for NTPC’s Farakka plant for transportation along the National Waterway Number One (NW1, Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system). Union Shipping Secretary Vishwapati Trivedi, and Chairman of Inland Waterways Authority of India Amitabh Verma, among others, will be present.

With this, the barge movement of coal along the NW1 will formally begin. This follows the tripartite agreement a few years ago between NTPC, IWAI and the private firm Jindal ITF to transport three million tonnes of imported coal annually along the 500-km long Sandheads-Farakka stretch of the NW1. Successful trial runs on the route have already taken place, it is learnt.

Unsatisfactory availability of domestic coal has forced NTPC to rely on the imported variety; also, the railway bottleneck has forced it to look for alternative modes of transportation for ferrying the coal to be imported. But then, NTPC had little choice in the matter. As it is set to boost its generation to meet the burgeoning demand for electricity, the demand for coal will only rise. Inland water transportation emerged as the most preferred option. The barge transportation of three million tonnes annually, it is estimated, will save 200,000 truck moves, thus substantially reducing pollution, cost, and pilferage.

A few weeks ago, the foreign vessel, MV Hyayang Pioneer brought a little more than 69,000 tonnes of coal which was discharged in phases in the transhipper, MV Vighnraj, owned and operated by Sula Shipping & Logistics. The transhipper in turn unloaded the consignment in barges. Jindal ITF, it is learnt, has mobilised as many as 20 barges for transportation of coal along the route.

santanu.sanyal@thehindu.co.in

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