IWAI inks pact with leading ports for waterways development

In a bid to expedite inland water transport projects, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) today inked three separate pacts with Paradip Port, Mormugao Port and Dredging Corporation.
These memorandum of understandings (MoUs) are meant to make use of the synergies, strengths and expertise of the port and dredging sectors to enable the IWAI to accelerate the development of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) sector as an alternative, viable and environment friendly mode of transport.
"The development of Inland Water Transport is a priority of the Ministry of Shipping... To ensure the development of the National Waterways in a time-bound and effective manner, the IWAI in the presence of Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Shipping, has signed three separate MoUs with Dredging Corporation of India (DCI), Paradip Port Trust (PPT) and Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) on Wednesday, September 26, 2016," the Shipping Ministry said in a statement.

After the declaration of 106 new National Waterways, in addition to the existing five, under the National Waterways Act, 2016, the responsibilities of IWAI have increased manifold, it said.
While the MoU with DCI will enable IWAI to maintain navigable depth in National Waterways, the pacts with PPT and MPT will help in developing National Waterway-5 in Odisha and various others in Goa, respectively.
The statement said under the MoU, DCI will supplement the asset base of IWAI by purchasing/leasing shallow depth dredgers and operating them in National Waterways. DCI will also prepare cost estimates and determine the duration of the dredging projects.

The MoU between IWAI and MPT will assist IWAI in the development of National Waterways like Mandovi river (NW-68), Zuari river (NW-111), Chapora river (NW-25), Cumbharjua canal (NW-27), Mapusa river (NW-71), and Sal river (NW-88) in Goa.

"IWAI and MPT will jointly work to achieve fairway development of the 182-Km stretch in Goa which includes dredging, river training works, bank protection, navigation aids, Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) etc. MPT will also provide project management supervision services related to the infrastructure works in the NWs," the statement said.
The MoU between IWAI and PPT will result in a collaboration between IWAI and PPT to develop a viable navigation system on NW-5 in Odisha for Phase-1 (Pankapal-Paradip/Dhamra-212 Km on the Brahmaniand Mahanadi river system) to facilitate the movement of cargo vessels of economical size and viable capacity, it said.

The development activities in Phase-I of NW-5 will include fairway development of 212 Km stretch which includes dredging, river training works, bank protection works; terminal construction with cargo handling facilities, off shore structures and related activities; and navigational aids including DGPS, RIS (River Information System).