Water transport in India has played a significant role in the country's economy and is indispensable to

foreign trade International trade is the exchange of Capital (economics), capital, goods, and Service (economics), services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countr ...

. India is endowed with an extensive network of waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks and a long coastline accessible through the seas and oceans. It has the largest carrying capacity of any form of transport and is most suitable for carrying bulky goods over long distances. It is one of the cheapest modes of

transport in India Transport in India consists of transport by land, water and air. Road transport is the primary mode of transport for most Indian citizens, and India's road transport systems are among the most heavily used in the world. India's road network i ...

, as it takes advantage of natural track and does not require huge capital investment in construction and maintenance except in the case of canals. Its

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

contributes to lower operating costs and reduced

environmental impact Environmental issues are disruptions in the usual function of ecosystems. Further, these issues can be caused by humans ( human impact on the environment) or they can be natural. These issues are considered serious when the ecosystem cannot reco ...

due to carbon. India has of inland waterways, out of which are navigable by mechanized vessels. Since 1947, India has made great progress in shipping and gradually became the second largest shipping country in Asia and sixth largest in the world. Indian ships ply on most of the shipping route of the world. India has a -long coastline with only twelve major ports: Mumbai, Kandla,

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also known as JNPT and Nhava Sheva Port, is the second largest container port in India after Mundra Port. Operated by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust Authority (JNPTA), it is located on the eastern shores of Arabian Sea ...

(at Nehru Seve), Marmagaon, New Mangalore and Kochi on the west coast, alongside Kolkata, Chennai, Haldia, Paradeep, Vishakhapatnam and Tuticorin on the east coast. Jawaharlal Nehru Port of Mumbai has been developed as one of the major ports. It is the only fully mechanized port of India. The biggest port is Mumbai which handles largest number of ships as well as trade. Kandla port in Gujarat compensates the loss of the

Port of Karachi The Port of Karachi (, ''Bandar gāh Karāchī'') is one of South Asia's largest and busiest deep-water seaports, handling about 60% of the nation's cargo (25 million tons per annum) located in Karachi, Pakistan. It is located on the Karachi H ...

to Pakistan. Vishakhapatnam is the third largest port of India. Kolkata is the largest inland port of Asia.

Inland Waterways Authority of India Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the statutory authority in charge of the waterways in India. It was constituted under IWAI Act-1985 by the Parliament of India.http://iwai.nic.in/showfile.php?lid=882 See section 3 of the act Its he ...

has a vision to raise India's 111 national waterway's current cargo handling capacity from 55 MT in 2017–18 and 72 MT in 2018–19 to 100 MT by 2021–22.IWAI revises cargo handling target to 100 MT on national waterways by FY22
''Economic Times'', 30 December 2019.

Benefits of waterways transport

The cost of

water transport Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it pr ...

in India is roughly a kilometre, as compared to by

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

and by roads. Water transport has received significant attention in recent times as logistical costs in India are some of the highest among major countries—18 percent in India versus 8-10 percent in China and 10-12 percent in the European Union. To increase the share of waterways in inland transport, the

National Waterways Act, 2016 The National Waterways Act, 2016 is an Act of Parliament of India. It was tabled in Lok Sabha by Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on 5 May 2015. The Act merges 5 existing Acts which have declared the 5 National W ...

was passed which proposed 106 additional National Waterways. This has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of transportation and lower the nation's

carbon footprint A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...

by moving traffic from surface roads and railroads to waterways. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first Ro-Ro ferry service in Gujarat in October 2017. Freight transport by waterways is highly under-utilized in India compared to other large countries and geographic areas such as the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The total cargo moved (in tonne kilometres) by inland waterways was 0.1 percent of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the 21 percent figure for the United States.

Inland canals and waterways

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

canals Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow u ...

backwater Backwater or Backwaters may refer to: Music * ''Backwaters'' (album), a 1982 album by American guitarist Tony Rice * Backwater (band), a jazz fusion band from Mobile, Alabama, or this band's 1976 debut album * "Backwater", a song by Brian Eno fr ...

s and creeks. The total navigable length is , out of which about of river and of canal can be used by mechanized crafts. About of

cargo In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in cas ...

are moved annually through these waterways using mechanized vessels and country boats. A Villagers Water Transport

Cargo transported in an organized manner is confined to a few waterways in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. Inland waterways consist of the

Ganges The Ganges ( ; in India: Ganga, ; in Bangladesh: Padma, ). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international which goes through India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China." is a trans-boundary rive ...

- Bhagirathi-Hooghly rivers, the

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...

, the

Barak Barak ( or ; ; Tiberian Hebrew: '' Bārāq''; "lightning") was a ruler of Ancient Israel. As military commander in the biblical Book of Judges, Barak, with Deborah, from the Tribe of Ephraim, the prophet and fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israe ...

river, the rivers in Goa, the backwaters in Kerala, inland waters in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

and the deltaic regions of the

Godavari The Godavari (, �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga River and drains the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakeshwar, Nashik, Maharash ...

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

rivers.

Notes

Coastal and coastline waterways

Transport facilities available by ship along India's vast coastline are part of the coastal shipping system. Coastal shipping is one of the most important aspects of Indian Transport system. The country has a coastline of nearly including the coastline of

Andaman & Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

and Lakshadweep Island. India has the largest merchant shipping fleet among developing countries and ranks 19th worldwide. Past decades saw a sharp decline in the country's coastal shipping operation. In 1961, there were 97 ships and in 1980 the number was down to 56. The shipping policy committee has recommended that Indian ships secure 100% of the country's coastal trade.

References

External links