Coal Shipment Ignites Hopes Of Waterways Viability

For the first time ever, a large consignment of imported goods has been shipped along the river Ganga from the port of Haldia to Varanasi raising hopes that the 1,200-km long waterway could provide a viable transportation alternative to the existing rail and road modes.

The consignment of imported coke, weighing roughly 1,500 tonnes, was unloaded from the mother ship at Haldia onto three barges which transported it along the Ganga to Kaithy, 20 km from Varanasi, where a new terminal has been recently set up. While one of the barges used was a self-propelled mechanised barge the MV Rajagopalachari, belonging to the state-owned Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the other two which were towed by tugs belonging to another state-owned body the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation.

IWAI chairman R P Sinha said the consignment had been transported on an experimental basis and its success had demonstrated that the Ganga river course was not only navigable over such a long stretch but was also a dependable mode for moving bulk industrial goods from ports to far-off places in the hinterland.

The Ganga has a minimum depth of two metres from Haldia to Patna, which makes it navigable for eleven months a year. Work is underway to ensure that the stretch from Patna to Varansi also has a similar minimum depth so that this portion too becomes navigable. Sinha expected the job to be completed within a year.

He hoped that transport of the consignment for its importer, Malvika steel, would induce other importers and exporters to use the water route for the movement of industrial goods both raw materials and finished products which, at present, are hauled by rail and road. This, he said, would go a long way in attracting private capital for the acquisition of river vessels. At present, the sector does not have adequate vessel capacity. This was a big hurdle in the development of the waterways transport sector, he said.