Why in news?
The government has proposed to make amendments to the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, to insert ‘national waterways’ into the Act.
What are the provisions?
- The Central Road Fund Act pertains to the CR Fund which is made up of cess on petrol and high speed diesel.
- The cess is at present in the rate of Rs 6 per litre.
- The amendment seeks to allocate a part of this cess to fund the National Waterways (NWs) project.
- Under the provisions of the bill, an allocation of 2.5% of CRF proceeds would go for funding the waterways project.
What are the benefits?
- The National Waterways (NWs) Act, 2016 aimed at developing and maintaining the existing five NWs and 106 new NWs across the country.
- However, the implementation is not in full swing with challenges in funding for the infrastructure such as jetties, terminals, and navigational channels.
- An allocation of 2.5% of CRF proceeds would provide approximately Rs2,000 crore per annum for the development and maintenance of NWs.
- It ensures a sustainable source of funding, as current budgetary support and funds from multilateral institutions are inadequate.
- It also offers incentives and certainty for the private sector to invest in the inland waterways transport sector.
- The move comes along with all the benefits of transportation through the waterways that include -
- environment-friendly, cleaner mode of transportation.
- lower logistics cost as cargo transportation through water is much cheaper.
- enable diversion of traffic from over-congested roads and railways.
Source: The Hindu
