MIT, USA hosts Inland Waterways Authority of India to hear the turnaround story
The turnaround that came in India’s Inland Water Transport sector with the beginning of plying of vessels on river Ganga between Varanasi and Kolkata has garnered global interest and appreciation.
Students and faculty at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA were on April 25, 2019 (USA time zone) told the story of how India managed to successfully implement Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) on river Ganga through a lecture by Pravir Pandey, Vice Chairman of IWAI.
Pandey, who was at the MIT’s School of Planning and Architecture on a special invitation from the institution delved on the journey of traversing the Ganga for implementation of infrastructure projects under JMVP, a Rs 5369 crores project financially and technically supported by the World Bank.
A detailed presentation was also made on the project scope and framework, the challenges, opportunities and success stories of implementing large scale inland water transport infrastructure.
On November 12, 2018, Prime Minister of India dedicated India’s first riverine multimodal terminal on Ganga at Varanasi to the nation. The same day, he also received country’s first container cargo that travelled on National Waterway -1 (river Ganga) from Kolkata to Varanasi.
The twin events not only marked watershed moments in the development of IWT in India but also broke grounds for a spurt in business activities on National Waterway (NW)-1 as is evident with a slew of cargo owners like PepsiCo, Emami Agrotech, IFFCO Fertilizers, Dabur India that have come on board IWT.
India’s National Waterway -1 (Ganga) has seen this major shift in quick time. Union Finance Minister, in his Budget Speech for 2014-15, delivered on July 10, 2014, had announced Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). In four years, close to Rs.2000 crores worth of work is already on ground on National Waterway-1. Of the three multimodal terminals being built on river Ganga under JMVP, the one at Varanasi is already operational and second in Sahibganj (Jharkhand) will be ready by mid-2019.
The costs of logistics in India, at 15% of GDP, is about twice those in the United States. Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) is being implemented for capacity augmentation of India’s National Waterway-1 on Haldia-Varanasi stretch for a distance of 1390 Km.
NW-1, along with proposed Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor and NH-2, constitute the Eastern Transport Corridor of India connecting the National Capital Region (NCR) with the eastern and north-eastern states and will function as a link to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal and other east and south-east Asian countries through the Kolkata Port and Indo- Bangladesh Protocol Route.
