"Approval of union cabinet has been given to make 101 rivers of India into waterways. 10-11 of them are from Maharashtra," said Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways; and shipping, "The areas of Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan too will have waterways in future."
Residents on the Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan belt are set to benefit as the Ulhas river passing through these areas will be used for passenger and domestic cargo transportation. The move is part of a central plan to develop 101 rivers, including 11 in Maharashtra, across the country as waterways.
"Approval of union cabinet has been given to make 101 rivers of India into waterways. 10-11 of them are from Maharashtra," said Nitin Gadkari, minister of road transport and highways; and shipping, "The areas of Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan too will have waterways in future."
The water body connecting "Kalyan-Thane-Mumbai waterways" has been identified as a separate waterway.
Among the other rivers that will be developed as part of the inland waterway project are Savitri and Shastri in Konkan, Amba between Khopoli and Revas, Arunavati (Aran) near Shirpur in Yavatmal district, Manjara in Latur district, Nag in Nagpur, Painganga (Penganga) in Aurangabad-Buldhana-Washim districts, Wainganga river in Chandrapur-Gondia-Bhandara-Gadchiroli districts and the Krishna river.
The state government through Maharashtra Maritime Board and Mumbai Port Trust is already working on a plan to facilitate operation of RoPax and Ro-Ro ferries between the Gateway of India-Mandwa and Ferry Wharf-Uran from 2017 onwards.
Speaking about exploiting rivers as transportation mode and comparing it with other countries, Gadkari shared that waterways comprise a big chunk of transportation in other countries. In Europe, 40% of it is through rivers, but in India it is abysmally low at 3.3% – of that only 0.3% is by way of motor launch.
"Like national highways, we can have national waterways," said Gadkari. A central legislation for declaring identified inland waterways as national waterways has been put up during the ongoing parliament session.
The operating cost of inland water transport is least as compared to road and railways. As per the workings of ministry of shipping, the operating cost for ferrying freight per tonne per kilometre by way of waterways is Rs1.06, while it is Rs1.41 and Rs2.58 for rail and road respectively. The low cost is also due to direct taxes being negligible for inland water transport.
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