There are 32 operational National Waterways (NWs) with navigable length of 5155 km throughout the country. Details of year-wise funds allocated and utilised for development of NWs during the last five years are given at Annexure-I.

                                                                                                                                  Annexure-I

Year-wise funds allocated and utilised for development of NWs during last five years

(Rs. in crore)

*Un-audited

Details of NW-wise cargo movement during the last five years in various States and ferry services currently operational are given in Annexure-II. State-wise details of passenger traffic handled on NWs and the number of terminals/ jetties are given at Annexure-III and Annexure-IV respectively.

                                                                                                                                 Annexure-II

Details of Cargo movement on NWs

(Cargo in Million Metric Tonnes)

                                                                                                                              Annexure-III

State wise number of passengers traffic handled on NWs

Ferry service is currently operational on 23 NWs viz., NW-1, NW-2, NW-3, NW-4, NW-5, NW-8, NW-9, NW-10, NW-14, NW-16, NW-23, NW-27, NW-44, NW-47, NW-53, NW-64, NW-68, NW-83, NW-86, NW-91, NW-97, NW-100 & NW-111.

Annexure-IV

List of permanent terminals / Floating Jetties / Landing Points on NWs

Infrastructure and Policy measures taken to promote inland water travel, improve last-mile connectivity, ensure passenger safety, and enhance affordability and environmental sustainability are given at Annexure-V.

                                                                                                                                Annexure-V

Infrastructure and Policy measures taken to promote inland water travel, improve last-mile connectivity, ensure passenger safety, and enhance affordability and environmental sustainability

Infrastructure measures:

66 community jetties, 20 floating terminals, 3 Multi-Modal Terminals (MMT), 1 Inter-Modal Terminal (IMT) and 4 Ro-Pax terminals have been constructed on NW-1 in addition to 5 pre-existing permanent terminals.

13 floating terminals provided on NW-2 along with MMTs at Pandu, Jogighopa and terminals at Bogibeel and Dhubri. Four dedicated Jetties for cruise vessels have been provided at Jogighopa, Pandu, Biswanath Ghat and Neamati. In addition to this, Jetties for cruise and passengers have been constructed at Sadiya, Lyka and Orium Ghat in Assam.

2 existing terminals at Badarpur & Karimganj on NW-16 have been upgraded/ renovated and 1 terminal at Sonamura on Gumati river in Tripura on the IBP route has been constructed.

9 Permanent IWT terminals with godowns and 2 Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax terminals have been constructed on NW-3 in Kerala.

4 floating concrete jetties have been provided to the Govt. of Goa and installed on NW-68.

4 Tourist Jetties on NW-4 in Andhra Pradesh have been commissioned and 8 Floating Jetties on NW-110 in Mathura-Vrindavan stretch in Uttar Pradesh, 2 Jetties on NW-73 and 2 Jetties on NW-37 in Bihar have been established.

A new Navigation Lock at Farakka has been constructed.

2 Quick Pontoon Opening Mechanisms (QPOMs) have been constructed on NW-1 to facilitate smooth and faster movement of vessels.

Fairway maintenance works (river training, maintenance dredging, channel marking and regular hydrographic surveys) have been taken up in various National Waterways for providing a navigation channel of 35/45 m width and 2.0 / 2.2 / 2.5 / 3.0 m least available depth (LAD) for operation of vessels.

Policy Measures:

Jalvahak Scheme: A scheme for providing 35% incentive to promote the utilization of inland waterways transport sector by cargo owners and for scheduled service for cargo movement on NW-1 and NW-2 and NW-16 via IBP route by Inland & Coastal Shipping Limited (ICSL) has been approved by the Government. The scheme is implemented at a cost of INR 95.42 Crore for three years.

Tonnage tax: An extension of the tonnage tax scheme to inland vessels registered under the Indian Vessels Act, 2021 was announced during the budget presented on 01.02.2025. Inland vessels operating on NWs, rivers, and canals, will be benefited. This move is expected to boost the industry's competitiveness and encourage more cargo owners to use inland waterways for transportation. A tonnage tax system is a special taxation policy for shipping companies where tax is not based on actual profits but on the size (tonnage) of the vessel. It provides stable, predictable, and lower taxation for vessel owners, reducing their financial burden.

The National Waterways (Construction of Jetties / Terminals) Regulations 2025 has been notified, allowing private companies to invest and operate Inland Waterways infrastructure by providing a clear regulatory framework to attract private sector investment for facilitating the growth of inland waterways sector.

Jalyan & Navic : To increase ease of doing business in the IWT sector, along the same lines as ‘vahan’ and ‘sarathi’, a central data base and portal has been developed for registration of vessels and crew all over the country. This will facilitate registration of vessels and crew digitally and would also provide accurate status on the number of vessels and crew in the country and thus help in planning.

Cargo Aggregation : The cargo movement on the waterways suffer from problems of multimodality because of lack of industries along the waterways. Therefore, projects for development of cargo aggregation hub – MMLP at Varanasi and Integrated Cluster- cum-Logistics Park, Sahibganj have been taken up. NHLML, a PSU under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been engaged for development of these MMLPs. The work of Rail connectivity for three MMTs has been assigned to M/s Indian Port and Rail Company Ltd. (a PSU under MoPSW).

IBP Route : Indo Bangladesh Protocol route no. 5 & 6 between Maia and Sultanganj has been operationalized recently with successful trial movements.

Shift of cargo by PSUs: For modal shift of cargo to waterways, more than 140 PSUs have been approached to plan their movement using IWT mode. They have been requested to outline their current status of cargo movement through the waterways and their plan for modal shift of cargo. Ministries of PNG, Co-operation, Fertiliser, Food & Public Distribution, Heavy industries, Steel and Coal have been requested to advise the PSUs under their jurisdiction to utilise IWT mode as far as possible and earmark certain percentage of their cargo for IWT mode keeping in line the MIV targets.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Source: PIB

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