Modernisation &

Inland Waterways
digitisation of
Authority
Ports, of India
terminals & (IWAI)
logistics

Our perspective

Inland Waterways Authority of India

Ministry of Shipping, Government of India
 Inland Water Transport sector overview

111 National Waterways

NW -1
with total length of NW -2

20,236 km comprising NW -16

of rivers, backwaters, creeks & NW -94
Gujarat IBP
canals Waterways
(NW-73, 100)
NW-44

Maharashtra NW-97
Waterways
16 operational waterways in India. (NW-10,83,85,91)

Goa
NW -4
22 more expected to be operational Waterways
(NW-68, 111)
by 2030
NW -3

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 Majority of traffic on Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra waterways & NW-1
Other waterways to also drive growth

Traffic on Operational Waterways Expected growth by

New NWs 0.0
3.8
2025
6.9
NW-1 5.1

NW-2 0.4
0.5 120 MTPA
0.7
NW-3 1.0
2.9
Goa waterways 1.3
24.4 New NWs to
Maharashtra… 22.5 play significant
Gujarat waterways 31.0 role in overall
0.0
growth
72.3 1.4 times
Total 30.4 increase
since 2015
FY20 FY15

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 Five year vision
Vision: Develop a self-sustainable, economical, safe & environment friendly supplementary mode of
transport for the overall economic growth of the country

Initiatives to achieve vision

• Increase modal share of IWT from current 2% to 2.5%

• Develop 5000 kms of IWT routes across states (India@75 as per NITI Aayog)

• Enhance regional connectivity with North East India & neighboring countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan &
Myanmar) through Eastern Waterway Connectivity – Transport Grid

• Integrate IWT with Coastal Shipping

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 Sector strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & challenges
Strength:
1. Environment friendly & supplementary mode
2. Natural route with min. investment requirements
3. Minimum land acquisition
4. Over 5000 km of navigable waterways
5. Socio-economic benefits
SWOT
Weakness:
1. Technical challenges
2. Coordination b/w Central, State & Private
3. Inadequate technical expertise & manpower
4. Absence of strong legal & regulatory framework
5. Integration with overall logistics flow
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Opportunities:
1. Coastal connectivity
2. Inter-regional connectivity
3. Capacity constraints in roads and railways
4. Private sector showing interest
Threats:
1. Development of road and rail network in river vicinity
2. Religious sentiments for rivers
3. Social challenges
4. Lack of adequate financing options
 Technology to boost overall sector’s performance
Portal for Asset and Navigational Information (PANI)
(River Navigation System)
To be implemented by FY21
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Salient features:
• Easy mobile & web based access
for viewing, uploading and
dissemination of information
• The Voyage Planner module will
assist stakeholders in identifying the
key assets, navigational information
and project LAD
• Map based visualisation of
information which is easy to access
and manage
• Facility of bulk data upload adding
convenience to IWAI
 Technology to boost overall sector’s performance
CarD (Cargo Data)
(portal for Collection & compilation, Analysis and
Dissemination of all the Cargo and Cruise movement data)
To be implemented by FY21
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Salient features:
• Year wise comparison of traffic of all
NWs.
• Month wise comparison of traffic.
• Jetty wise traffic.
• Top OD pairs with maximum traffic.
• Major Commodity Share.
• Month wise cruise Km on NW
• Shipper wise commodity share.
• Operator wise commodity share.
• Year wise comparison of traffic KM.
• Month wise cruise passenger traffic
on NW
 Other Digital initiatives
• Phase 1: 6th January 2016
• Phase 2: 15th March 2018
• Phase 3: August 2020 (expected)

RIS Photograph LADIS Pic FOCAL Pic

River Information System (RIS)
Real time vessel tracking and routing by
capturing data points like water depth,
bends, river width etc.
Least Available Depth Information System Forum of Cargo-Owners and Logistics-
(LADIS) Operators (FOCAL)
Ensure real-time data on LAD is Aggregator of vessel operators, logistics
disseminated for shippers and cargo owners intermediaries and cargo owners

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

DGPS NETWORK
 Innovative technological interventions in IWT sector

Innovative Vessel Designs Use of bottom panelling technique for Green Terminal Buildings
river training
Low draft IWT vessel designs with high New Terminals are being built based on
efficiency Submerged screens placed in the flowing GRIHA compliance
. stream to obstruct the flow in secondary
channel

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 Technology to boost overall sector’s performance
Sailing Permission portal for IBP route
• Initiative for digitalising the procedure of
providing permissions, agent & vessel
registration on the IBP route
• The portal to potentially reduce physical
interactions with emails & SMS
• It is expected to be launched by 30-Jun-
2020
• Possibility of extending the same for
tracking Domestic voyages in the future
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Vessel and Crew Registration (JalVahan)
• The system to as a central repository for
all vessel and crew details
• Provide details to requestors in real time
• The system is a crew and vessel
registration portal which will aggregate
registration data from all states and UT
Freight Management System (FMS)
• FMS will enables terminal operators,
vessel operators, cargo owners and
IWAI in managing the cargo movement
on National Waterways
• It will be integrated with PCS and will
allow seamless collection of data at
source and generating insights from the
same
 Technology adoption hydrography
Multibeam Transducer
• Bathymetric Survey using Digital Echo Sounder and Global fitted on vessel S.L.
Ghaghra
Positioning System
• Topographic Surveys using DGPS, Total Station and Auto
levels
• Bottom Scanning using Side Scan Sonar
• Current Meter observation
• Water Sampling and Bottom Sampling
• Produce Charts for Navigation and Morphological changes in
Waterways
• Issue of fortnightly River Notice for safe navigation
• Shoal analysis reports for river training works

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 Transformation - hydrographic surveys in last three decades

Sextant Multibeam

Single Beam Chart Multi Beam Chart

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Hydrographic operations
 Setting up of Water Aerodromes for regional connectivities
Locations:

a)Shatrunjay Dam - Gujarat

b) Sardar Sarovar Dam – Statue of Unity - Gujarat
c) Sabarmati River Front- Gujarat
d) Guwahati River Front – Assam
e) Umrangso Reservoir –Assam
The total estimated cost comes to Rs. 11.84 Crores. and
funds for the same will be allocated from RCS (Regional
Connectivity Scheme) popularly known as UDAN

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 FUTURE PLANS
HYDROMASTER SELF PROPELLED PONTOONS
SIDE FLOATER BARGES S (PILOT PROJECT WITH CICMT,IIT KHARAGPUR)

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

2 Way Forward

Way Foward

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

21
 Playing to inherent strength will enable growth of traffic on NWs

Following areas are being strengthened for boosting the overall

ecosystem of IWT sector
• Low operational cost
• Port connectivity/ In-shore
corridor – potential to reduce
handling/ congestion through Terminal Mechanised
transhipment Capacity building Digital Integration
development equipment
• Land availability along NWs –
potential to develop cargo
centers
Higher capacity Faster customs Multimodal Shallow draft
crane pontoons clearance on IBP connectivity vessels

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

2 Way Forward

Way Forward

• Digitized integrated platform for dissemination of information

• Revalidation of DPRs which are more than 10 years old
• Revival / operationalization of obsolete jetties to attract private sector participation
• Short Distance water transport corridors to be identified
• Smaller floating jetties to be monetized through manning contracts
• Integration with coast line to take benefit from Port led developments
• Commodity enhancement – Coal, Food grain, LPG
• Policy being framed on providing NOC to private jetties
• Moratorium on levy & collection of waterway usage charges for initial period of 3 years l

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

 Relaxed financing terms – Needed to attract investments
In absence of long-term financing options from lenders, attracting private investment in vessels is challenging as
RoI is expected to be over long period

Proposed Vessel Financing tools

Extension of benefits under Riverine development fund Ship building & financial SPV for vessels
Tonnage Tax Scheme to Inland assistance policy
Vessels
1 2 3 4

• Tax benefit under section 33 of IT

Act allowed India Public company
to deduct amount up to 100%
from P&L account and utilize it for
ship acquisition within 8 years
• Currently applicable to ships
registered under Merchant
Shipping Act, 1958
• To be extended to ships
registered under Inland Vessels
Act, 1917
• Ship acquisition: Globally - foreign
currency bonds. India - through
banks
• Foreign vessels avail a loan for
15 years, while Indian vessel
owners get loan for 6-8 years
• To provide longer tenure funds at
a lower cost of borrowing, a
specialized development fund
may be explored
• To promote building of a greater
number of barges, a separate
shipbuilding financial assistance
policy may be explored
• Such policy can be exclusively for
new build barges/ IV vessels
proposed to be deployed in the
NWs for movement of cargoes
and passengers
• The key challenge in ship
financing is drop-in valuations. In
case the ship doesn’t get
business, its value immediately
collapses and banks take the hit.
• To protect the banks, the ships
can be owned by a Special
Purpose Vehicle that can be
leased across the globe.

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

Enhancing Private Sector Participation
• O&M of jetties and allied infrastructure through private operators

o GR Jetty I,II & BISN jetty handed over for O&M to M/s Summit Alliance Port East
Gateway (India) Pvt. Ltd. on 30 Oct 2018 (38.3% revenue share)

o EOT of Varanasi MMT - Varanasi SFC appraisal held on 23 April 2020. SFC appraised
the project

o OMDA of Sahibganj MMT - 3 applications received against RFQ and was substantially
unresponsive. Retender after PPPAC

o In pipeline – 4 Terminals and 1 Slipway

 Haldia terminal, Pandu terminal, Dhubri terminal, Gaighat terminal & Slipway at
Pandu

• 5 cargo vessels chartered to M/s Adani (Bareboat)

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)
Capacity building in IWT sector

 National Inland Navigation Institute (NINI) at Patna to be developed as “Centre of Excellence”

for IWT sector.
 E-learning modules being developed

Potential job creation in IWT sector: More than 1.5 lakh

• Fairway development
• Terminal operations & management
• Vessel operations & management
• Ship building & Ship repair
• Consultancies & contractors
• Safety & security

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)

Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI)