At the ET Edge Supply Chain Management Fest-2025, held in New Delhi on June 26-27, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways received the ‘Sankalp se Siddhi Infrastructure Honour’ for implementation of Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP).

The project, aimed at the capacity augmentation of National Waterway-1 (River Ganga), is currently underway at 1390 km long stretch of the river from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Haldia in West Bengal, traversing the states of Jharkhand and Bihar.

By developing multi-modal and inter-modal terminals, navigational lock, community jetties and doing fairway maintenance work along nine stretches of NW-1, IWAI is enhancing the navigability of river Ganga under JMVP. The project is being implemented with the financial and technical assistance of the World Bank.

The ‘Sankalp se Siddhi Infrastructure Honour’ is a testament to the exceptional infrastructural works done by IWAI to advance Inland Water Transport (IWT) sector in India.

Since the implementation of the Jal Marg Vikas Project, cargo movement on NW-1 has gained momentum registering three-fold increase to over 16 MMT per annum from 5 MMT per annum a few years ago.

National Waterway-1 is central to IWAI’s Jalvahak cargo promotion scheme that aims to incentivise modal shift of cargo to waterways. Scheduled services under the scheme are presently operational from Kolkata to Patna and Kolkata to Varanasi on NW-1.

Besides, the success of world’s longest cruise Ganga Vilas has opened new opportunities of growth in river cruise tourism, especially on River Ganga.

In the coming years, IWAI plans to develop cruise terminals, freight village and ship repair facilities along the river to push sustainable cargo and cruise movement on NW-1.

At the SCM Fest-2025, Chief Engineer and Project Manager, JMVP, Shri Arun Kumar Mishra received the award on behalf of the Authority.

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SR/GDH/HR

(Release ID: 2140424)