''Water transport in India'' has played a significant role in the country's economy and is indispensable to

foreign trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...

. India is endowed with an extensive network of waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks and a long coastline accessible through the seas and oceans. It has the largest carrying capacity of any form of transport and is most suitable for carrying bulky goods over long distances. It is one of the cheapest mode of

transport in India Transport in India consists of transport by land, water and air. Road transport is the primary mode of transport for most Indian citizens, and India's road transport systems are among the most heavily used in the world. India's road network ...

, as it takes advantage of natural track and does not require huge capital investment in construction and maintenance except in the case of canals. Its

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device ...

contributes to lower operating costs and reduced

environmental impact Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on t ...

due to carbon. India has 14500 km of inland waterways. Out of which only 5685 km are navigable by mechanized vessels. Since 1947, India has made great progress in shipping and gradually became the second largest shipping country in Asia and sixth largest in the world. Indian ships ply on most of the shipping route of the world. India has a longer coastline of 6100 km long and have only 12 major ports. They are Mumbai , Kandla, Jawaharlal Nehru Port(at Nehru Seve), Marmagaon, New Mangalore, Kochi on the west coast and Kolkata, Chennai, Haldia, Paradeep, Vishakhapatnam and Tuticorin on the east coast. Jawaharlal Nehru port of Mumbai has been developed as one of the major ports. It is the only fully mechanized port of India. The biggest port is Mumbai which handles largest number of ships as well as trade. Kandla port in Gujarat compensates the loss of Karachi Port (Pakistan). Vishakhapatnam is the third largest port of India. Kolkata is the largest inland port of Asia.

Inland Waterways Authority of India Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the statutory authority in charge of the waterways in India. It was constituted under IWAI Act-1985 by the Parliament of India.http://iwai.nic.in/showfile.php?lid=882 See section 3 of the act Its hea ...

vision to raise India's 111 national waterway's current cargo handling capacity from 55 MT in 2017-18 and 72 MT in 2018–19 to 100 MT by 2021–22.IWAI revises cargo handling target to 100 MT on national waterways by FY22
Economic Times, 30 December 2019.

Benefits of waterways transport

The cost of

water transport Maritime transport (or ocean transport) and hydraulic effluvial transport, or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people ( passengers) or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by sea has been widely used th ...

in India is roughly a kilometre, as compared to by

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

and by roads. Water transport has received significant attention in recent times as logistical costs in India are some of the highest among major countries—18 percent in India versus 8-10 percent in China and 10-12 percent in the European Union. To increase the share of waterways in inland transport, the

National Waterways Act, 2016 The National Waterways Act, 2016 is an Act of Parliament of India. It was tabled in Lok Sabha by Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on 5 May 2015. The Act merges 5 existing Acts which have declared the 5 National W ...

was passed which proposed 106 additional National Waterways. This has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of transportation and lower the nation's

carbon footprint A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Greenhouse gases, including the carbon-containing gases carbo ...

by moving traffic from surface roads and railroads to waterways. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first Ro-Ro ferry service in Gujarat in October 2017. Freight transport by waterways is highly under-utilized in India compared to other large countries and geographic areas such as the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

. The total cargo moved (in tonne kilometres) by inland waterways was 0.1 percent of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the 21 percent figure for the United States.

Inland Canals and Inland Waterways

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

canals Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

backwater Backwater or Backwaters may refer to: Music * ''Backwaters'' (album), a 1982 album by American guitarist Tony Rice * Backwater (band), a jazz fusion band from Mobile, Alabama, or this band's 1976 debut album * "Backwater", a song by Brian Eno fro ...

s and creeks. The total navigable length is , out of which about of river and of canal can be used by mechanized crafts. About of

cargo Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tra ...

are moved annually through these waterways using mechanized vessels and country boats. A Villagers Water Transport

Cargo transported in an organized manner is confined to a few waterways in Goa,

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

. Inland waterways consist of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

- Bhagirathi-Hooghly rivers, the

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. I ...

, the

Barak Barak ( or ; he, בָּרָק; Tiberian Hebrew: '' Bārāq''; ar, البُراق ''al-Burāq'' "lightning") was a ruler of Ancient Israel. As military commander in the biblical Book of Judges, Barak, with Deborah, from the Tribe of Ephrai ...

river, the rivers in Goa, the backwaters in Kerala, inland waters in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

and the deltaic regions of the

Godavari The Godavari (IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakeshwa ...

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

rivers. Notes: *IWAI -

*CIWTC - Central Inland Water Transport Corporation *KSINCL- Kerala State Inland Navigation Company Limited

Coastal Waterways or Coastline Waterways

Transport facilities available by ship along India's vast coastline are part of the coastal shipping system. Coastal shipping is one of the most important aspects of Indian Transport system.The country has a coastline of nearly 7,517 km including the coastline of

Andaman & Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

and Lakshadweep Island. India has the largest merchant shipping fleet among developing countries and ranks 19th worldwide. Past decades saw a sharp decline in the country's coastal shipping operation. In 1961, there were 97 ships and in 1980 the number was down to 56. The shipping policy committee has recommended that Indian ships secure 100% of the country's coastal trade.

References

External links

* http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=63559 {{Transport in India Geography of India

Benefits of waterways transport

Inland Canals and Inland Waterways

Coastal Waterways or Coastline Waterways

See also

References

External links