Relevance: GS 3- Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, And Railways etc.

Key Phrases:  Inland waterways, Freight transport, National Waterways, Comparative Advantage, Regional trade, Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP), Hub-Spoke model, PM Gati Shakti initiative, `Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, Food Corporation of India

Why in News?

• Recently, a vessel carrying 200 metric tonnes of food grains for the Food Corporation of India (FCI), docked at Guwahati’s Pandu port on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra on March 6.
• The movement is believed to have taken inland water transport, on two of India’s largest river systems–Ganga and Brahmaputra.

Background:

• The shipping of cargo from Gangetic belt to North-East in India via Bangladesh was FCI’s pilot project.
• A pilot experiment was carried out in 2018 when two 1,000-tonne barges carrying 1,233 tonnes of bagged fly ash travelled 2,085 km from Bihar’s Kahalgaon to Pandu for more than a month.
  1. A private firm had procured the fly ash from the National Thermal Power Corporation’s plant in Bihar for use in its cement factories in Assam and Meghalaya.
  2. The FCI cargo is expected to lead to regular services between NW1 and NW2 “heralding a new age of inland water transport” for the northeast.
• According to the IWAI, the development process has already started with a 252 MT cargo destined for eastern Assam’s Numaligarh bio-refinery having reached central Assam’s Silghat from Haldia in West Bengal.

Benefits of Waterways:

1. Comparative Advantage: Inland Waterways are highly cost-effective and environment-friendly compared to other means of transport, specifically in long distances. For example, According to Rail India Technical and Economic Service, an arm of the Indian Railways, inland water transport is significantly cost-efficient compared to rail and road transport.
2. Enhance Decongestion: Inland waterways transport will also help with decongestion of overcrowded rail and road networks in India.
3. Boost to Regional trade: Inland waterway mode has been agreed for inclusion in the trade treaty between India and Nepal. Recently, Stone exporters from Bhutan have identified inland waterways as an alternative mode of transportation.
4. Efficient and Effective energy consumption: One horsepower can carry 4000 kg load in water whereas it can carry 150 kg & 500 kg load by road & rail respectively.
5. Low maintenance cost: The cost of construction and maintenance of canals is much less, moreover, the cost of operation of inland water transport is very low.

Limitations of inland waterways in India:

1. Phenomenon of Flood and Drought: In Monsoon Rivers over flooded, while rest of the year, there is water scarcity.
2. Indian Dilemma: water for irrigation or water for transport
3. River’s of North East India flow through rocky areas. Hence they are not fit for plying boats because of waterfalls in many areas.
4. Poor last mile connectivity: As compared to boats, railways have better end to end connectivity.

Significance of Ganga-Brahmaputra inland waterways in for North East:

• Passage through important terminals:
  1. It passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar in India, Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj and Chilmari in Bangladesh and again to India on National Waterway-2 (NW2, river Brahmaputra) through Dhubri and Jogighopa covering 2,350 km.
  2. The successful docking of the vessel carrying 200 MT of food grains for the FCI has rekindled hope for the inland water transport system which the landlocked northeast depended on heavily before India’s independence in 1947.
• Connectivity is vital for holistic development:
  1. Around Independence, Assam’s per capita income was the highest in the country primarily because of access for its tea, timber, coal and oil industries to seaports on the Bay of Bengal via the Brahmaputra and the Barak River (southern Assam) systems.
  2. Ferry services continued sporadically after 1947 but stopped after the 1965 war with Pakistan, as Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan then.
  3. The scenario changed after the river routes were cut off and rail and road through the “Chicken’s Neck”, a narrow strip in West Bengal, became costlier alternatives.
  4. The start of cargo movement through the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route is going to provide the business community a viable, economic and ecological alternative.
  5. Seamless cargo transportation has been a necessity for the development of northeast.
• Government support for Hub-Spoke model based development for North East:
  1. PM Gati Shakti initiative envisaged to slowly convert the northeast into a connectivity hub and ramp up the swift movement of cargo on the Brahmaputra, which meets the Ganga in Bangladesh.
  2. These rivers are called Jamuna and Padma in that country. The multiple terminal development through these roads will provide positive spillover effects to other regions.

Conclusion:

• The docking of the cargo vessel carrying 200 MT of food grains for the FCI has rekindled hope for the inland water transport system in the Northeast.
• The vessel passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar in India, Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj and Chilmari in Bangladesh and again to India on the NW2, through Dhubri and Jogighopa covering 2,350 km.
• Transportation of cargo service through waterways in Bangladesh is possible because of the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade signed between the two countries.

Sources: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. Despite various steps taken to connect the North-East with inland waterways, the results still are not very encouraging. Discuss the significance of Inland waterways in reducing the logistics cost and promoting the environmentally friendly economic development of North-East. (15 marks).