Bhubaneswar: To facilitate shipping and navigation through inland waterways, the Union government has taken up development work of 20 National Waterways (NWs) across the country in the first phase including the 233km NW5 of Odisha, Dhamra-Paradip via Mangalagadi to Pankapal, informed the Union Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply in Lok Sabha recently.
Replying to queries by Jajpur MP Sarmistha Sethi, the minister also said that to ensure the movement of people and goods through inland waterways, the government has formulated action plans for the development of 26 ‘most viable’ National Waterways from the 111 such declared NWs across the country. In the case of NW-5, for monitoring every month, Thalweg survey is being conducted by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) in the first phase of the development work for identification of ‘least available depth’ in the navigation channel, informed the minister. Additionally, the IWAI has prepared detailed project reports for the construction of weirs, barrages and modification of bridges for both NW-5 and NW64, which connects Paradip to Sambalpur.
Furthermore, the state government has been delegated the task of raising the height of high-tension power lines to make navigation in these waterways safe for vessels, informed the minister. For the movement of minerals through these waterways, while the option of forming a special-purpose vehicle is being explored for coal, gypsum movement from the IFFCO plant to the Paradip Port has already started from April 25, 2022. So far, a total of 8,06,053 MT of gypsum and 19,99,362 MT of other commodities have been moved through NW-5, NW-64, and NW-23, the minister informed. Notably, Sethi had asked the Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister about steps the Union government has taken for the development of inland waterways in Odisha to promote water-based transport.
ATRI PRASAD ROUT, O