Fund Needs For Inland Water Transport Seen At Rs 5655 Crore

The planning commission has pegged the requirement of funds at Rs 5,655 crore for development of the inland water transport (IWT) sector in the country during the Tenth Five Year Plan period (2002-07).

Of this amount, Rs 1,944 crore is expected to come in the form of budgetary support, while Rs 3,369 crore will be come from external funding, according to the working group on the inland water transport sector for the Tenth Five Year Plan.

The remaining amount is expected to raised by way of bonds by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and through private investments.

The plan panel has earmarked Rs 136 crore to be raised by the state-owned IWAI from the debt market and Rs 216 crore by way of private investments for development of the sector during the next five years.

In addition to this, state governments would be expected to invest in development of IWT under the state sector as well as from their share in centrally sponsored schemes, government official involved in the exercise said.

"All sources of funding for development of the much neglected sector would be explored during the next five years. This includes the possibility of levying of a cess to meet any shortfalls in the prescribed funding pattern for the plan period," an official said.

Of the total requirement of funds, IWAI would be needing Rs 4,746.50 crore for new schemes during the tenth plan period and Rs 251 crore has been estimated for completion of spill over schemes, according to the panel.

The requirement of funds by the ailing Central Inland Water Corporation Ltd. has been pegged at Rs 217 crore, while Rs 450 crore is to come from centrally sponsored schemes, as per the panel.

The final report of the working report has also proposed that 50 per cent of the funds for development of inland waterways should be given as grant to states, instead of the current provision of 30 per cent.

As per the report, the ministry of shipping will work towards developing eight river ports at strategic locations and construct cargo oriented terminals and handling facilities during the five year period.

The ministry proposes to develop Kolkata as a Central Inland Port for eastern and north-eastern region and providing port-hinterland connectivity through inland waterway transport (IWT).

The strategy during the tenth plan would be to tackle the constraints in a pro-active manner and set up necessary infrastructure during the next five years and to provide necessary incentives, government officials said.

Once benefits start accruing, it should be possible to have the sector developed fully thereafter on commercial lines with large participation of private sector, they said.

At present, inland transport quantum in the country is around 1,000 billion tonne km. Out of this more than 60 per cent is carried by road and the remaining by rail, while inland waterways have an insignificant share. IWT amounts only about 1.5 billion tonne km, which is just 0.15 per cent of the total transport of the country.