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A parliamentary panel has objected to Shipping Ministry's proposal of handing over profitable stretches of National Waterways 4 and 5 to private investors through public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
"The Committee does not agree with the idea of handing over only the profitable stretches of National Waterways (NW) 4 & 5 to private partners," Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said in its report tabled in Parliament yesterday.
Both the Waterways - Kakinada-Puducherry canals with rivers Godavari and Krishna (NW 4), connecting Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the East Coast Canal with Brahmani river and Mahanadi delta rivers (NW 5), connecting Odisha and West Bengal are yet to be operationalised despite declaration as National Waterways in 2008.
The Committee, headed by CPI-M parliamentarian Sitaram Yechury questioned, "Does it mean that the non-profitable and riskier sections would be left to the government (Inland Water Transport Authority of India)."
Stating that it fails to understand why only the commercially lucrative and viable stretches should be offered to private hands through PPP mode, the Committee recommended, "Government should come out with comprehensive projects for development of Inland Water Transport in a time bound manner in the country".
Earlier, the panel while examining the proposal for creation of Barak river stretch in Assam as the sixth NW in the country had expressed doubt whether the government would be in a position to operationalise it when NW 4 and 5 are still to be made operational.
The Rajya Sabha on August 14 had passed the Bill declare the 121-km stretch of Barak river as NW 6.
The Committee, in its latest report has said," There is no specific planning and roadmap for mobilising required investment for the creation of infrastructure and modernisation of the existing waterways and also operationalising new ones that are pending."
It recommended that the government should come out with comprehensive projects for development of IWT in a time-bound manner and sanctions for the same should be made accordingly.
