Infrastructure

KEY POINTS

Merits of Water based transportation

·        Low Cost of transportation

·        Less polluting

·        Less expensive to build & expand

·        India specific – with its natural advantage of a 7,500 km coastline and 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways, India can take a lot of pressure from the road and rail infrastructure.

Steps taken

·        The Lok Sabha has recently passed an amendment to the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, proposing to allocate 2.5 per cent of the funds collected for development of waterways.

·        Port led connectivity and modernisation programme – Sagarmala project.

·        Jal Marg Vikas Project (National Waterway-I: River Ganga) – It envisages to develop a fairway between Varanasi and Haldia.

·        Development of eight new National Waterways.

·        The shipping ministry has recently eased the Cabotage law which specifies that only Indian flagged vessels are allowed to carry cargo between Indian ports.

Challenges

·        The government has identified 106 more waterways for navigation apart from NW-1.

·        But even NW-1 makes water transportation possible for only a few vessels and only during daytime.

·        Also, only in monsoon months when the water levels are high, transportation could be made possible in such rivers.

Suggestions

·        Dredging of rivers

·        Building new ports

·        Lower port charges

·        Digital GPS for night navigation

·        Need for better berthing facilities

·        A proper river information system

·        Ensuring quick evacuation of goods from the port

·        Leveraging technology to offer single document for multi-modal transportation

Kindly review

Kindly review. Thanks. 

Kindly review.