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The World Bank is evaluating a loan of over $100 million for developing National Waterway 2 (NW2) on the Brahmaputra river in Assam, putting more faith in the Narendra Modi government’s efforts to revive India’s much neglected and under-utilised network of rivers and canals as an alternate mode of transport, after lending $375 million to the NW1 between Haldia and Allahabad earlier this year.
A mission from the World Bank visited the NW 2 site a few days ago to carry out a scoping study.
The mandate of the mission is to finalise the scope of work, after evaluating the interventions required to make the waterway navigable for cargo and passenger movement and arrive at a conclusion on the project cost, one of the officials briefed on the plan said, asking not to be named.
“Based on the recommendations of the scoping mission, the total project cost will be finalised by the month-end, after which the World Bank will present a proposal to its board to fund as much as half of the project,” he said.
Preliminary estimates suggest that the development of NW2 will require about Rs 1,600 crore.
The NW2 criss-crosses through Assam along the Brahmaputra river, stretching 891 km, linking Dhubri near the Bangladesh border and Sadiya. The project cost for developing NW2 will be much less than NW1, totalling 1,620 km, as there are fewer terminals on this stretch and land acquisition would also be lesser.
But, critics are sceptical of the government’s move to push through with the development of another waterway stretch with a World Bank loan, without waiting to see the results of the Bank-funded NW1.
“With the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP), the NDA government is giving maximum focus to Varanasi, which is the Parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Modi, and Uttar Pradesh in general. They want to replicate this in Assam, which covers the entire North-East. There has been no worthwhile cargo movement along the Brahmaputra river for the last 30 years after it was declared a national waterway,” a transport industry source said.
“You watch a mega project such as JMVP for at least 2-3 years, whether it has brought the expected benefits, and then go for a similar project. That is the normal, logical thing to do because these are loans,” he said.
Some others see a different angle in the government’s hurry to secure World Bank funding for NW2.
“Polls are scheduled for May. They want to capture maximum seats from the North-East given the recent setbacks in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Their target is to achieve closure of the World Bank loan by March, and announce a mega scheme for the North-East before the elections. That is the thinking behind the whole thing,” said another transport specialist.
World Bank and the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) were not immediately available for comments.
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