Cost benefit study needed before spending money on inland water transport

Given the shape of peninsular India it makes far more sense to run trains from one coast to the other than ships.

The term inland water transport always makes me prick up my ears. Forty years ago the editor of the paper I was working for asked me to write ‘something’ on inland water transport. 

I had never heard of such a thing. It took me two whole days. But after all that effort, the editor decided to junk it. He crumpled the sheet and threw it into the dustbin.

Ever since then I have kept track of the subject like poking a rotten tooth. So it came as a pleasant surprise that a small shop carrying 200 MT foodgrains from Patna docked at