Consortium On Cards To Part Finance Inland Waterways: IWAI

A consortium of leading financial institutions both domestic and overseas is being conceived to part finance close to 101 inland waterways to facilitate faster and economic cargo movement across India, according to Chairman Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) Mr. Amitabh Verma.

The IWAI has appointed a full time consultant, who happens to be a former head of the leading Indian banking institution as also engaged services of a senior consultant of International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank that are currently working out a proposal for creation of such a consortium amidst their other assigned functions, said Mr. Verma without divulging much of its nitty-gritty.

Inaugurating a Multimodal Transportation Conclave-2015 under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Verma said, hopefully, the proposed consortium would evolve into an established entity in near future as 101 identified inland waterways alone require an investment of Rs.35,000 crores in next couple of years.

Mr. Verma asserted saying that the Constitution of IWAI allowed it to create such an entity as also raise funds through market borrowings and tapping multilateral agencies to fund the inland waterways.

The Authority would take advantage of its empowerments to raise funds through market borrowings as also organizing arrangements through multilateral agencies to fund the identified inland waterways which would happen in next two years as by Winter Session of the Parliament, the Inland Waterways Bill which has been pending in the Parliament for the last 8 years could be passed. Its earlier enactment would facilitate the proposal of IWAI for tapping market borrowings and organizing funds through multilateral agencies, said Mr. Verma.

According to him, feasibility studies for construction of six inland waterways would be completed by October this year and the detailed project report for them will have been accomplish by March 2016.

In addition, the Authority is pushing harder for allocation of vessel and freight subsidies with its administrative ministry and other organs of the government as acquiring vessels require huge investment to operate on the inland waterways.

Ambassador of Belgium to India Mr. Jan Luykx in his remarks informed that Belgium which is the key international player in multimodal transportation would be too happy to form alliances with its Indian counterparts as a few of its players have already made alliances with India to enable it put in effective multimodal transportation in India.

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