Inland Waterways Transport
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is executing Jal Marg Vikas Project to enable plying of about 1500 DWT commercial vessels on Haldia-Allahabad stretch of National Waterways-1 (NW-1) with technical and financial support of World Bank. Development of fairway in the stretch of Dhubri-Dibrugarh of NW-2 by providing 2.5 meter Least Available Depth (LAD) is also being undertaken to facilitate commercial navigation. NW-3 (Kottapuram-Kollam) is fully operational and is being utilised for commercial navigation. These measures are intended to provide opportunities to ply vessels by private/state run companies on these NWs. A tripartite agreement between National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and M/s Jindal ITF was executed for transportation of three million tonnes of imported coal per year from Sandheads, Bay of West Bengal to NTPC Power Plant at Farakka for seven years. M/s Jindal ITF Ltd. developed the project which interalia includes setting up of terminal facility at Farakka, procurement and operation of inland barges and transhipper at sea for loading of imported coal to barges from the mother vessel.
This information was given by Minister of State for Shipping, Shri Pon Radhakrishnan in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
