Reviving the inland water transport system for the Northeast

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The MV Lal Bahadur Shastri, which had sailed up the Ganga from Patna a month before, landed in Guwahati’s Pandu port on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra on March 6, carrying 200 metric tonnes of food grains for the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
• It is thought that the event propelled inland water transport on two of India’s most important river systems into the future.

Why is a Ganga-Brahmaputra cargo vessel in focus? 

• When a cargo vessel sets sail from or docks at any river port, it is not unusual for people to take notice. However, a large number of VIPs gathered to greet the MV Lal Bahadur Shastri, a cargo vessel operated by the IWAI (Inland Waterways Authority of India), as it docked at Guwahati’s Pandu port on March 6. Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Guwahati MP Queen Oja, and IWAI Chairman Sanjay Bandopadhyay were among those who attended the ceremony.
• The vessel had begun sailing from Patna on the National Waterway 1 on February 5th (NW1, river Ganga). In India, it passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar, and Chilmari, while in Bangladesh, it passed through Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj, and Chilmari before returning to India via National Waterway 2 (NW2, river Brahmaputra) via Dhubri and Jogighopa, a distance of 2,350 In India’s landlocked northeast, which was highly reliant on India’s inland water transport system before independence in 1947, the arrival of a vessel carrying 200 MT of food grains for the FCI has renewed optimism for the inland water transport system.

Is this the first such shipping of cargo? 

• The shipment of freight from Patna to Pandu via Bangladesh was the first enterprise undertaken by FCI. Two 1,000-tonne barges carrying 1,233 tonnes of bagged fly ash travelled 2,085 kilometres (more than a month) from Kahalgaon in Bihar to Pandu in Uttar Pradesh in a similar experiment in 2018.
• A private company had purchased fly ash from the National Thermal Power Corporation’s facility in Bihar for use in its cement mills in Assam and Meghalaya, which were located in those states. According to expectations, regular services between NW1 and NW2 will be established, “heralding a new age of inland water transport” for the northeast. A 252 MT shipment bound for eastern Assam’s Numaligarh biorefinery arrived at Silghat in central Assam on February 15 after travelling from Haldia in West Bengal.
• According to the Indian Wind Energy Association, the process has already begun. Another vessel, the MV Ram Prasad Bismil, which is transporting two barges named Kalpana Chawla and APJ Abdul Kalam, began its trip from Haldia on February 17 and is anticipated to arrive in Pandu within a few days.

How would regular inland water service impact the northeast? 

• Around the time of independence, Assam had the highest per capita income in the country, owing to the state’s tea, lumber, coal, and oil industries’ proximity to seaports on the Bay of Bengal through the Brahmaputra and Barak River systems (in southern Assam).
• Ferry services continued intermittently after 1947, but were discontinued during the 1965 war with Pakistan, because Bangladesh was formerly known as East Pakistan.
• As a result of the closure of the river channels, transportation by rail and road across the “Chicken’s Neck,” a short strip of West Bengal, became more expensive options.
• “The commencement of cargo transportation through the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route will present the corporate community with a viable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly alternative.” A seamless cargo transportation system has been deemed essential for the northeast,” Mr Sonowal explained. “

India has invested 80% of ₹305.84 crore to improve the navigability of the two stretches of the IBP (Indo-Bangladesh Protocol) routes. Attributed the resurgence of historical trade routes through Bangladesh to the Prime Minister’s Gati Shakti initiative, which aims to gradually transform the northeast into a connectivity hub while increasing the speed with which cargo can be transported on the Brahmaputra, which meets the Ganga in Bangladesh. In that nation, these rivers are referred to as the Jamuna and the Padma.

What led to the establishment of the water cargo service via Bangladesh?

• Since the signing of the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between the two nations, the return of freight transport services over Bangladesh’s waterways has come at a high cost. India has committed a total of 305.84 crore, or 80 percent of the total, to improving the navigability of two lengths of the IBP (Indo-Bangladesh Protocol) routes in Bangladesh — Sirajganj-Daikhowa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj, respectively.
• In addition, the seven-year dredging project on these two segments, which is projected to be completed by 2026, is likely to result in continuous transportation to the north-eastern area.
• IWAI authorities have said that once the IBP routes are opened for navigation, the distance between NW1 and NW2 will be reduced by over 1,000 kilometres. The government has also invested Rs. 4,600 crore on the Jal Marg Vikas project, which would increase the capacity of the National Waterway No. 1 to allow for the sustainable transit of boats weighing up to 2,000 tonnes.
• However, there are a few difficulties that need to be addressed. It has been difficult for the sailors who made the cargo journeys feasible to avoid being caught in fishing nets or being attacked by furious fisherman in Bangladesh. Officials believe that these difficulties will be resolved in due course.

The Hindu link

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/reviving-the-inland-water-transport-system-for-the-northeast/article65207285.ece

Question- Reviving the inland water transport system for the Northeast will help in ensuring opportunities for development of the northeast. Elucidate.