A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Government of Odisha, Paradip Port and Dhamra Port Company Ltd. for developing the commercially viable stretches of National Waterway-5 in two phases.
In the National Waterway-5, East Coast Canal has been integrated with the Brahmini river and the Mahanadi delta rivers (588km).
On NW-4, a project for development of Sholinganallur-Kallapakkam stretch of South Buckingham Canal has been sanctioned. To facilitate the execution of the work, the State Government of Tamil Nadu has been approached for providing assistance with regard to identification and handing over land for development of terminals and dumping of the dredged materials.
The National Waterways-1, 2 & 3 have been made operational. For development of NW-4 & 5, Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) were completed in 2010. Initially Government tried to explore the possibility of developing stretches of the fairway on NW-4 and 5 under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
The development of inland waterways which are declared as National Waterways (NW) by an Act of Parliament comes under the purview of Central Government. So far, the following waterways have been declared as NWs:-
– Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system (Allahabad-Haldia-1620 km) in National Waterway-1;
– River Brahmaputra (Dhubri-Sadiya-891 km) in National Waterway-2;
– West Coast Canal (Kottapuram-Kollam) along with Udyogmandal and Champakara Canals-(205 km) in National Waterway-3;
– Kakinada-Puducherry canals along with Godavari and Krishna rivers (1078 km) in National Waterway-4;
– East Coast Canal integrated with Brahmani river and Mahanadi delta rivers (588 km) in National Waterway-5.
Press Release