National Waterways
There are 14500 km of navigable and potentially navigable inland waterways in the country of which the following five inland waterways have been declared as National Waterways:
(i) National Waterway-1: Allahabad-Haldia stretch of the Ganga–Bhagirathi-Hooghly river ( Total length-1620 km) in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
(ii) National Waterway-2: Sadiya-Dhubri stretch of the Brahmaputra river (Total length-891 km) in the State of Assam.
(iii) National Waterway-3: Kollam-Kottapuram stretch of West Coast Canal and Champakara and Udyogmandal canals (Total length-205 km) in the State of Kerala.
(iv) National Waterway-4: Kakinada-Pudducherry stretch of canals comprising of Kakinada canal, Eluru canal, Commamur canal, Buckingham canal and the Kaluvelly tank, Bhadrachalam-Rajahmundry stretch of river Godavari and Wazirabad-Vijaywada stretch of river Krishna ( Total length-1027 km) in the States of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
(v) National Waterway-5: Talcher-Dhamra stretch of Brahmani-Kharsua-Dhamra rivers, Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of East Coast Canal, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai river and Mahanadi delta rivers between Mangalgadi and Paradip (Total length- 588 km) in the States of West Bengal and Orissa.
Out of above mentioned five National Waterways, developmental works are being carried out by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) on NW-1, 2 and 3 only. In NW-1 & 2, IWAI undertakes river conservancy works to provide navigational channel of 3 meter/2.0 meter/1.5 meter depth in different stretches during the low water period. In NW–3, which is a tidal canal, Inland Waterways Authority of India is carrying out capital dredging to provide a navigational channel with 2 meter depth and 32 meter width. Navigation by cargo and other inland vessels take place in these three National Waterways all around the year. For National Waterways-4 and 5, declared as National Waterways in November, 2008 proposals for development of these waterways have been initiated.
The above information was given by the Minister of Shipping, Shri G.K. Vasan in Lok Sabha today.
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MC/MK
(Release ID :63559)