Inland Waterways Authority of India


India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The total navigable length is 14,500 km, out of which about 5200 km of the river and 4000 km of canals can be used by mechanised crafts. Freight transportation by waterways is highly under-utilised in India compared to other large countries and geographic areas like the United States, China and the European Union. The total cargo moved by the inland waterway was just 0.1% of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the 21% figure for United States. Cargo transportation in an organised manner is confined to a few waterways in Goa, West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala.
Inland Waterways Authority of India is the statutory authority in charge of the waterways in India. It was constituted under IWAI Act-1985 by parliament of India Its headquarters is located in Noida, UP. It does the function of building the necessary infrastructure in these waterways, surveying the economic feasibility of new projects and also administration. On 31 August 2018, IWAI made 13 standardised state-of-art design public for the transportation of cargo and passengers keeping in mind Ganges complex river morphology, hydraulics, acute bends, currents etc. in National Waterway - 1. The first implementation will be between Varanasi-Haldia stretch in assistance and investment from World Bank.

History

Inland Waterways Authority of India was created by Government of India on 27 October 1986 for development and regulation of Inland waterways for shipping and navigation. The Authority primarily undertakes projects for development and maintenance of Inland Waterway Terminal infrastructure on National Waterways through grant received from Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways. The head office is at Noida. The Authority also has its regional offices at Patna, Kolkata, Guwahati and Kochi and sub-offices at Prayagraj, Varanasi, Bhagalpur, Farrakka and Kollam.

Classifications & Standards

Budget

Till 2010, an amount of was spent on Inland waterways of India.

Executives

Amita Prasad is the current Chairman of the Authority.

National Waterways

Based on the data available on navigable waterways, compiled by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, by 2015-16 a total of 106 water bodies with a minimum length of were declared as national waterways. These have been classified into 3 categories based on financial viability and location as well as into 8 clusters based on locations. In first phase, 8 national water of category-1 that are considered most viable will be developed. There are 60 category II NWs in coastal regions with tidal stretches and feasibility reports for 54 of these will be delivered from May 2016 onwards

National Waterway 1

NW-6 is a Waterway.