Country's largest container cargo en route to Patna from Haldia

52 containers loaded on Inland Vessel MV Bhavya on Tuesday sailed for Patna from Haldia on river Ganga (National Waterway-1).

The containers belonging to Adani Logistic Limited carrying edible oil of Adani Wilmar will reach its destination in 9-10 days after covering a distance of 955 kilometres.

"This movement is country's largest container movement through Inland Water Transport (IWT) and stands testimony to the readiness of National Waterway-1 (river Ganga) in providing a seamlessly enabled fairway," an official release by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) said.

IWAI Chairman Pravir Pandey and other senior government officials welcomed and flagged off the vessel at Kolkata's Garden Reach Jetty-II for its onward journey.

"While a state of the art Rs 517 crore multimodal terminal (MMT) at Haldia is at the penultimate stage of readiness, IWAI is likely to deliver the Rs 281 crore MMT at Sahibganj in Jharkhand in August. Country's first riverine MMT (at Varanasi) built at a cost of Rs 170 Cr was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister in November 2018," the IWAI informed.

IWAI further claimed that it aims to increase cargo transportation through IWT in India from 72 million tonnes to 120 million tonnes by 2023.