Union Minister for Shipping G.K.Vasan has ina written reply told members of the Rajya Sabha that the government is actively developing and regulating waterways that have been declared national waterways.
Vasan said it is the responsibility of state governments to develop any other waterways.
He said the waterways that are being developed as national waterways are:
(1) Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system (Allahabad-Haldia-1620 km) in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal as NW-1, declared in 1986.
(2) River Brahmaputra (Dhubri-Sadiya-891 km) in the state of Assam as NW-2 declared in 1988.
(3) West Coast Canal (Kottapuram-Kollam) along with Udyogmandal and Champakara Canals - (205 km) in the state of Kerala as NW-3 declared in 1993.
(4) Kakinada-Puducherry Canals along with Godavari and Krishna rivers (1078 km) - in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry as NW-4 declared in 2008.
(5) East Coast Canal integrated with Brahmani river and Mahanadi delta rivers (588 km) in the states of West Bengal and Odisha as NW-5 declared in 2008.
Array
The minister further said that the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is developing the first three National Waterways for shipping and navigation by providing a navigational channel with targeted depth and width for most part of the year.
These, he said, are provided with aids for day and night navigation, fixed/floating terminals at selected locations for berthing and loading/unloading of vessels and intermodal connectivity at a few selected locations.
