NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY,

BHOPAL

In partial fulfilment of the requirement of the project on the subject of Transport Law
Including Law Relating to Carriage of Goods of B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), Thirteenth Trimester

“INLAND WATERWAYS TRANSPORTATION IN INDIA”

A STEP TOWARD GREEN ECONOMY

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2018-19

Submitted on 07th September, 2018

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Mrs. Padma Singh Yash Bharti

2014 BALLB50
Assistant Professor

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to begin with acknowledging Professor Mrs. Padma Singh who gave me this
opportunity to work on a Transport Law project work, giving us full autonomy to choose our
topics as well as guidance where ever needed.

I would also like to thank the Director of the university and the administration who have
given us all the requisite facilities like library, Wi-Fi connection, computer lab and photo stat
which make the task much easier and efficient.

Yash Bharti

2014BALLB50

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Scope of Project ......................................................................................................................... 4

Statement of Problem ................................................................................................................. 4

Hypothesis.................................................................................................................................. 4

Research Methodology .............................................................................................................. 4

Limitations ................................................................................................................................. 4

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5

Legal Background ...................................................................................................................... 5

National Waterways Project ...................................................................................................... 7

Comparison with other Countries .............................................................................................. 8

Advantages and Disadvantages.................................................................................................. 9

An Instant of Effectiveness ...................................................................................................... 11

A step toward Green Economy ................................................................................................ 12

Challenges Ahead .................................................................................................................... 14

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 16

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SCOPE OF PROJECT

This research aims at throwing light on the following aspects associated with inland
waterways transportation in India:

1. The promising potential of IWT.

2. Link of the services from this sector with the evolving understanding of Green Economy.
3. Advantages and Disadvantages of transportation via waterways.
4. Challenges and opportunities in the development of IWT.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Despite being one of the oldest, cheapest and most effective modes of transportation, inland
waterways transportation, in India, remains significantly under-developed and neglected
mode of transportation, with minimal waterways linked trade being carried out through this
mode of transportation.

HYPOTHESIS

In a comparison of river transportation system with surface road-rail network, IWT is a

potential means to encourage green economic growth

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is built on the legal propositions, related journal articles and analysis
of landmark and significant decisions taken by courts and authorities worldwide.

LIMITATIONS

This report is subjected to certain limitations. The research is fully based on the secondary
data consisting books, journal articles, statutes etc., which is done in a very limited time
period provided.

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 INTRODUCTION

There exist four main ways of transportation in India: Roadways, Railways, Airways and
Waterways. Railways and roads are given sufficient importance and have long enjoyed the
attention of policymakers in India, but waterways were left behind and are only minimally
developed. This status prevails despite water transport being the cheapest and the oldest mode
of transportation as it operates on a natural track and does not require huge capital investment
in the construction and maintenance. Transportation of cargo through inland waterways not
only helps to rein in carbon emissions but also curbs the rate of road accidents, making it an
effective means of transportation.

With spread of globalization, the traditional culture of small distance transport using inland
waters was substituted by land, air, marine systems. This transformation left the inland
waterways as a de-prioritized and neglected sector. Until today, rivers in urban centers and
rural areas of developing countries constitute of small, non-mechanized country boats often
used for transport, trading and livelihoods.

Apart from its cost effectiveness, there are a wide range of benefits provided by inland
waterways. These include creation of business opportunities and jobs, and public benefits,
such as recreation. Further evidence on the benefits of green transport opportunities is also
required as these may prove to play a significant role in reducing travel carbon emissions.
These are high on the government’s agenda.

LEGAL BACKGROUND

In April 2016, Parliament approved the National Waterways Act. It was tabled in Lok Sabha
by Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways on 5 May 2015.
The Act merges 5 existing Acts which have declared the 5 National Waterways and proposes
101 additional National Waterways. The Act came into force from 12 April 2016. This is a
significant approval as the Act provides for enacting a central legislation to declare 106
additional inland waterways as the national waterways in addition to five existing national
waterways. The Centre derives the power for the regulation and development of inland
waterways, declared by Parliament by law to be national waterways, as provided in the IWAI
Act, 1985.

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The legislation provides conversion of 15 rivers in West Bengal, 14 each in Assam and
Maharashtra, 11 in Karnataka, 12 in Uttar Pradesh, 9 in Tamil Nadu and 6 each in Bihar and
Goa and 5 each in Gujarat, Meghalaya, Odisha and Telangana, among others. It also includes
plan to convert the Yamuna in Delhi and Haryana into a waterway. Five of the river-
stretches, which have been declared as National Waterways, include Allahabad Haldia on
Ganga (1,620 km), Brahmaputra’s Dhubri-Sadiya (891 km), West Coast Canal Kottapuram
Kollam (205 km), Kakinada Puducherry canals (1,078 km) and East Coast Canal integrated
with Brahmani River and Mahanadi delta rivers (588 km).

The Act also ensures that it is equally environment-friendly especially in protecting the
riverine ecology and fisheries and importantly tackling pollution. The techno-economic
feasibility undertaken by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and various
Environmental Impact Assessments were carried out and the Parliament was appraised before
the Bills for declaration were processed. What also comes out strikingly is the will and
confidence of the government to fulfill the task. The Minister expressed that once the existing
five National Waterways gains momentum, it will “revolutionize” water transport in the
country.

Government has grouped the 106 national waterways (NWs) in the country into 3 categories
based on their viability, coastal area and those in the hilly and inaccessible terrain:

• Category I consists of 8 waterways that are as of now considered to be most viable and can
be taken up for development in phase-I.

• Category II are those NWs that are in coastal regions and have some tidal stretches. The
number of such coastal rivers and canals is 60. These have been divided into 8 clusters based
on their geographical locations.

• Category III includes all the balance waterways which are in the remote, inaccessible and
hilly regions have been grouped in this category. These 54 rivers/canals have also been sub-
divided into different clusters and initially only feasibility studies for all these waterways
have been awarded.

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1

NATIONAL WATERWAYS PROJECT

This project proposes to have National Waterways covering the entire nation just like
National highways. The Himalayan Waterways lie almost along the entire country from west
to east on the northern side. The Central and Southern Waterways cover almost all the states
in the centre and south up to Kanyakumari. Since the waterway runs at an even height of 500
meters and 250 meters above sea level, we will be able to generate enormous power by
utilizing the level difference helping to build a water grid just like a power grid.2

1
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=national+waterways&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiysq
DF9IHWAhVEOY8KHT0EBrcQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=638#imgrc=aBMPlZsvQ5a-PM:, (August 22th,
2018, 3:15 p.m.)
2
http://www.nationalwaterways.com/project_details.html, (August 24th, 2018, 9:35 p.m.)

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The Himalayan Waterways Project:

The Himalayan Waterways Project on the north consists of a wide canal travelling from West
to East at the foot of Himalayan Mountain and above the North of the Ganges River. The
Waterway, starting form Jammu runs almost the entire length at the toe of Himalayan
Mountain up to Bramhaputra and turns south passing through Arunachal Pradesh and
Nagaland up to Haflong. The width of the waterway proposed is 150 m and depth of 10 m
subject to variation. The waterways will be about 4500 Km long. The constant water levels in
the waterway will be 10m. There will also be a continuous balancing waterway on the upper
side of this waterway designed to a width of 250 meters & depth of 30 meters.

The Central Waterways Project: 

Starting in Uttar Pradesh on the Northern side of Vindhya Range it traverses on both sides of
the range east and west. It passes through Bihar, West Bengal, and Circle in Maharashtra.
The total length of the Central waterway will be about 5750 km. This will also have a
balancing waterway of 200 meters width and 30 meters depth. Since the water form
Mahandhi will flow to the area under Narmadha and vice versa, the flood and drought in the
central region will be greatly minimized.

The Southern Waterways project:

Starts form Maharashtra runs down in Andhra and Tamil Nadu up to Kanyakumari. Then it
travels in Kerala, Karnataka, and Goa and joins in Maharashtra forming a circle. The
Southern Waterways is also a contour canal. The length of the Southern Waterways is 4625
km. Width - 100 meters (approx.) Depth - 10 meters (approx.). This will also have a
balancing waterway of 200 meters width and 30 meters depth.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER COUNTRIES

Asia is generously endowed with navigable inland waterways. Some are canals, some single
rivers, while others form parts of major deltas. Some of them, such as the Ayeyarwady,
Ganges, Jamuna-Brahmaputra, Lancang-Mekong, Volga and Yangtze rivers are world
famous for the enormous contribution they have made to national and regional development.

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 China uses its river systems to transport 8.7 per cent of the national cargo both for domestic
and export markets against 0.4 per cent for India. Korea uses its waterways to transport 43
per cent of its freight and passenger traffic, while for Japan, it is 44 per cent. For the EU as a
whole, waterways are used to transport up to 40 per cent of inland freight traffic and for the
US, it’s over 8 per cent.

The total navigable length of rivers, lakes and canals in the Asian region exceeds 290,000
km. On these inland waterways, more than 1 billion tons of cargo (of which China
contributes approximately 70 per cent) and 560 million passengers are moved each year.3

India draws a substantial network in terms of inland waterways yet only about 5200 km of
river and 4000 km of canals, out of 14,500 km navigable water, can be used by mechanized
crafts Freight transportation by waterways is still an underutilized resource across the country
in comparison to other economies like United States, China and European Union. Inland
waterways in India makes up a paltry 3% of the total transport, compared with China‟s 47%.
When compared the total cargo moved (in tonne kilometres) by inland waterway was
reported to be 0.1% of total inland traffic across the country. Cargo transportation in India is
generally confined to a few waterways in Goa, West Bengal, Assam and backwaters of

Kerala.18 India however, struggles to create depth in its river systems and evolve effective

de-silting processes to accommodate even medium or small-sized vessels.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

It is important to conduct evaluation work in order to provide more values and benefits for a
large number of people. How the public perceive and value the benefits of inland waterways
will be important and a valuable contribution to peoples‟ quality of life.


ADVANTAGES4

Low cost: Rivers are a natural highway which does not require any cost of construction and
maintenance. Even the cost of construction and maintenance of canals is much less as they

3
http://www.gktoday.in/blog/inland-water-transport-in-india-and-national-waterways/, (August 26th, 2018, 1:30
p.m.)
4
http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-water-transport/2185, (August
25th, 2018, 5:10 p.m.)

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are used, not only for transport purposes but also for irrigation, etc. Moreover, the cost of
operation is also very low. Thus, it is the cheapest mode of transport for carrying goods from
one place to another.

Larger capacity: It can carry much larger quantities of heavy and bulky goods such as coal,
and, timber etc.

Industrial development: The competitive edge of key industries (steel, agro, oil & minerals)
on the global market strongly relies on cost-effective inbound and outbound shipments of raw
materials by waterways. A positive chain effect is established that can directly benefits non-
waterway regions through competitive pricing of end products.

Economic growth: Inland waterways will help keep goods moving by avoiding a traffic
gridlock when economic growth leads to rising freight volumes again. Investments in
waterways infrastructure will serve, besides sustainable transport, regional development and
tourism. The „neighborhood first‟ approach of the government will get adequate boost by
developing India‟s inland waterways.

Sustainable development: Clearly inland waterway transport will reduce negative

externalities. Investments in waterways will serve biodiversity and integrated water
management.


DISADVANTAGES5

Slow: Speed of Inland water transport is very slow and therefore this mode of transport is
unsuitable where time is an important factor.

Limited Area of Operation: It can be used only in a limited area which is served by deep
canals and rivers.

Seasonal Character: Rivers and canals cannot be operated for transportation throughout the
year as water may freeze during winter or water level may severely deplete during summer.

Unreliable: The inland water transport by rivers is unreliable. Sometimes the river changes
its course which causes dislocation in the normal route of the trade.

5
http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/geography/transportation/water-transport-kinds-disadvantages-and-
disadvantages-of-water-transport/42133/, (August 25th, 2018, 5:10 p.m)

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Unsuitable for Small Business: Inland water transport by rivers and canals is not suitable for
small traders, as it takes normally a longer time to carry goods from one place to another
through this form of transport.

AN INSTANT OF EFFECTIVENESS

In February 2016 year automobile manufacturer Hyundai loaded as many as 800 of its cars at
the Chennai Port to be unloaded at the Pipavav Port in Gujarat. This was the first time
Hyundai transported its cargo through the sea for the domestic market. In the words of
Chennai Port‟s Deputy Chairman Cyril C George:

We see a lot of potential in this kind of movement of cargo. It is cheaper than the road route,
and we are expecting the ministry of shipping to announce an incentive scheme for such
traffic soon, and that would give further impetus to transshipment.7

6
www.iwai.nic.in
7
http://smartinvestor.business-standard.com/market/story-368381-storydet
Hyundai_experiment_buoys_industry.htm, (August 31st, 2018, 10:15 p.m.)

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Hyundai’s decision came soon after the government announced a five-year relaxation in the
cabotage law. The law makes it mandatory to use Indian ships for transporting cargo between
different ports along the country’s coast.

Due to the lack of Indian RoRo vessels, 60 percent of India’s export and import containers
are transshipped through ports like Singapore and Colombo, which involves huge
expenditure and extra transit time.

The tweak in the Indian cabotage law might be a true game-changer. Chennai Port Trust is
already talking to companies like Nissan and Ford for transporting cargo.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India‟s biggest private port operator is now looking
to expand its presence in Maharashtra and West Bengal after Gujarat. Adani‟s larger port
strategy is to club the port opportunities in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and a few european nations
to complete its “string of pearls”.

Experts believe that this has both strategic importance and will lead to monetary gain. This
may end Colombo‟s monopoly in transhipment in South Asia and attract international
carriers to operate in Indian waters. Colombo‟s China-backed ports have long unnerved
India‟s strategic community.

While the challenge for the government remains to establish robust waterways systems
bypassing problems like, seasonal river flows, dry summers, low height bridges obstructing
traffic and diverting river navigation without hurting irrigation and drinking water needs, the
benefits are surely worth taking that plunge.

A STEP TOWARD GREEN ECONOMY

On one hand, transport and trade are considered as two broad service sectors of inland water
resources. On the other hand, attempt is made to link the services from this sector with the
evolving understanding of Green Economy. Green Economy vision is not a replacement for
sustainable development, although fair degree of overlap is noted, such as: propagation of
low carbon frameworks, adoption of approaches that target resource efficiency and aiming
socially inclusive growth (UNEP-2011).

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 There is need to explore the synchrony in IWT and Green Economy. Green Economy
emphasizes on retaining or improving human well-being, reducing environmental and
ecological risk while balancing the economic growth as key goals of green economic growth.
This project focuses on the Ganges basin and illustrates the prospect of Inland Water
Navigation, which if supported by appropriate national policies can successfully compete in
efficiency and cost with surface freight transportation sector. Consideration is given to the
fact that Inland Water Navigation sector can be significant relevance for addressing climate
change mitigation process.

To project a strengthened regional trade in South Asia and improve bilateral links, IWT
established in coordination with the doctrines of greening the economic growth sounds as a
promising option. In the case of remote industrially (mining) active areas of North-east India
(including Bihar, Bengal) that are landlocked and transport mined products mostly by road.
NW-1 provides an alternative route for goods to be directly transported to Kolkata (or
Mongla) port India (Bangladesh) facilitating national and cross-country trade.

India and Bangladesh have a bilateral protocol, renewed every two years, for India to use the
Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghan river way for water transit between West Bengal and Assam
(Verghese, 2001). Taking reference of existing arrangement between two countries further
facilitation can go long way to address above concerns, not just for national level economic
growth, also for regional development. Green Economy is a newly sorted target both for
developed and developing economies. The article attempts to explain prospective practices
and process.

 Low capital and maintenance cost: Estimations show that developing and building an
inland waterway costs about 5-10 per cent to that of 4-lane highway/railway (IWAI-200809),
making it a lucrative transportation option with low capital investment. In India, maintenance
cost of IWT is assessed at 20% that of road. Department of Shipping (India) states that
shifting cargo transport to the IWT mode will reduce transport fuel cost by 5 million USD
and overall transport cost by 9 million USD (Sriraman, 2010).Other factors: local conditions
of river, fuel cost, and maintenance costs will be contributing to operational cost as well.
IWT may be cost intensive at the start; it is a cost-effective in long term.
 Potential for Integrated design: Integrated transport and trade frameworks/models (ITF’s)
is discussed for optimization in efficiency and economics (UNCTAD, 2008). Physical

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 integration talks about infrastructural structures such as dams/ barrages which restrain regular
water flow (and LAD) needed for IWT. Construction of bridges also restricts vertical
clearances of navigation vessels (especially heavy-duty cargo). Despite endowed with
numerous navigable rivers only four national waterways are functional in India (that too with
low freight traffic). Functional Integration refers to connection between National Highways,
National Railways and National Waterways connecting these modes of transport and trade
through a joint regulating authority. The railway freight corridors linked with the waterways
by making special tracks up to NW terminals. Haldia Dock Complex (NW-1)-inland water
terminal provides possible integration point for coastal shipping with national waterways and
re-distributing the cargo in waterways. Extendable to point-based-point connection with road
and rail networks, it is expected to have relevant applicability and fuel-cost efficiency.
Structural Integration refers to achieving efficiency in integrated design by improving
infrastructural/technical facilities viz., linked roads, channels, permanent berths, handling
gears like shore cranes and gantries (for containers), mobile cranes, forklift trucks and
trailers, and gantries (for containers), mobile cranes, forklift trucks and trailers, storage sheds
and warehouses.
 Carbon Efficiency: The goal of Green Economy framework is to minimize carbon footprint
of development processes. Fuel efficiency is vital to regulate carbon emission. IWT is
exceedingly fuel-efficient transport mode with an estimate that one litre fuel can transport 24
tonne/km freight by road, 85 tonne/km by rail and 105 tonne/km by waterways (IWAI-
2008/09). With appropriate regulatory measures, IWT as a transport option bears competitive
advantage.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

During its time in Parliament, the upper house saw a lively debate on the Bill with most
members, including some from the National Democratic Alliance government, expressing
concerns on three counts:

i. the law's impact on the already drying rivers,

ii. the rights of people and
iii. the power of the states to regulate the economy along the banks of these rivers.

Following are the various challenges faced:

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TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY ISSUES8

India lags behind on developing its waterways but the government has moved swiftly to
overcome the first legal hurdle before it- converting the river stretches into national
waterways.

But the trade-offs involved in running navigable river systems through the year - have been
treated by the government as a “clearance issue” however, navigable waterway requires
constant and steady water flow at a set minimal limit depending on the tonnage of weight to
be shipped. This has to be managed artificially. The river has to operate like a canal.

The water resources ministry told the Parliamentary Standing Committee that the inland
waterway plans would have to respect the inter-linking of river plans too, facing the
challenge of maintaining the minimum depth of water in the proposed river stretches/ canals
for navigability in order to ensure that drinking, irrigation and other demands of water do not
get impaired.

ECONOMIC ISSUES9

The next requirement is that the river is trained and consistently provides a sufficient depth
vis-à-vis the draft of the vessels that are expected to ply on it. Recent cost estimates of river
training on Sabarmati river provide a figure of about Rs 10 to 11 crores/km on each bank. In
rural areas, the figure could be lower, say Rs 8 to 9 crores/km.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Though global declines in freshwater diversity are a source of great concern, the development
of freshwater infrastructure on the scale being proposed in India is almost unparalleled. India
has nearly 12% of the world's freshwater fish species, in 65 different families. A significant
number of these are endemic to the nation, including over 280 freshwater fish and numerous
turtle and terrapin species found nowhere else on Earth.

At a minimum, externally monitored environmental impact assessments are desperately

needed to attempt to mitigate the impacts on regional biodiversity. However, the detailed

8
https://www.geographyandyou.com/climate-change/water/challenges-of-inland-transit-in-india/, (August 25th,
2018, 6:45 p.m.)
9
Supra note 27.

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technical, economic and environmental analysis in accordance with the principles of
integrated water resources management should continue including taking all stake holders on
board. The inland waterways should be accorded the same attention as given to the rail and
road. 10

CONCLUSION

On the basis of this research the hypothesis stands correct that the limited area of operation
and seasonal character of inland waterways transportation along with various other factors
such as economic issues, technical issues, unreliability etc. are the main reasons why despite
being the cheapest and most efficient mode of transportation the amount of water-related
trade being carried out through this mode of transportation is merely 3.5%.

After decades of languishing as the poor man‟s choice of commute and subsistence, the
inland water transport system is finally expected to revive and connect far-flung distances.
Only a preliminary task, though important, of passing a central legislation has been done so
far. The real implementation and realization of the targeted venture is a distant reality.
Considering the challenges and high investment requirement it is still a very long way to go
for IWT to be properly and effectively functional on a national basis.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Statute

o The National Waterways Act, 2016 No. 17 of 2016.

 Articles

o Moacir de Freitas Junior, Rodrigo Carlo Toloi, João Gilberto Mendes,

Oduvaldo Vendrametto, Waterways Cargo Transportation: A Comparison between
Brazil and the United States, ILS 2016.

10
National Waterways Bill: A Flow of Progress, Uttam Kumar Sinha, (August 26th, 2018, 1:30 p.m.),
http://www.idsa.in/idsanews/national-waterways-bill-a-flow-of-progress

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o Narayan Rangaraj (IIT, Bombay), G. Raghuram (IIM, Ahmedabad), Viability of Inland
Water Transport (IWT) in India, 2005.
o Dr. S. Sriraman (University of Mumbai) Viability of Inland Water Transport (IWT) in
India, RITES Journal, 2010.
 Web - Resources

o http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/water-india-172
o http://www.wwinn.org/india-inland-waterways
o http://web.mit.edu/harishm/www/papers/13bsmthesis.pdf
o http://tripp.iitd.ernet.in/publications/NTDPC/Vol%20032/NTDPC%20Vol%2003_Part%
202.pdf
o http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/pub_2307_ch11.pdf

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