November 5, 2020:Rotterdam is dubbed “The Gateway to Europe” due to its legendary port located in Nieuwe Mass river, a tributary of the Rhine, a trans-boundary river with strong roots to the Holy Roman empire. Rotterdam, along with the Rhine-Meuse-Sheldt rivers, give waterway access to the heart of Western Europe. It is a crucial part in western Europe’s economy—moving goods, fuel and people throughout the region, with efficiency and ease.
The Rhine reminds us of the another historic trans-boundary river in South Asia: The Ganges. Sahibganj of Jharkhand, located close to the infamous Siliguri corridor on the banks of the Ganga, aspires to play a similar role, transforming it into a transit-hub for goods, energy and people, to and from east India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Its strategic location prompted the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to build India’s second riverine Multi Modal terminal (MMT) at Sahibganj district, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated in September 2019. An L&T team from Chennai built the terminal at a cost of Rs 290 crore. The MMT, along with rail and a new road network, will open up industries of North-east states, Jharkhand and Bihar to the global market, and provide Indo-Nepal cargo connectivity through the waterways route. It will play an important role in transportation of domestic coal, oil tankers, stone chips, fertilisers, cement and sugar along National Waterway-1 (NW1).
Successful transit hubs like Rotterdam, Mumbai and Chennai often grow from fishing villages to port towns. Without all-round development, these port towns would not have grown into economic engines transforming the regions around them. A district like Sahibganj, which is one of the poorest in the country, needs to overcome a host of unique challenges to reach its potential.
Fortunately, Sahibganj is chosen in NITI Aayog’s ‘The Transformation of Aspirational Districts Program’ which aims to expeditiously transform 117 districts that were identified from across 28 states, in a transparent and data based manner. This initiative focuses on the strengths of each district, and identifies the attainable outcomes for immediate improvement, while measuring progress.
Sahibganj has a long way to go in terms of improving network access, literacy and building robust last mile connectivity. If Sahibganj manages to take the challenge head on, NITI Aayog and its partners should be able to see it coming. Because this little experiment in governance relies on excel sheets more than empty words.
Source: Forbes India
