Government groups 106 national waterways in three categories

NEW DELHI: 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, Parliament was informed today.

Last month, the National Waterways Act, 2016, came into force, which declared these 106 waterways in to NWs and techno economic feasibility ( TEF) studies are being conducted on selected NWs at present, Minister of State for Shipping P Radhakrishnan said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

"As part of preparatory works to undertake development on 106 new National Waterways, IWAI has grouped them under three categories," he added.

The Minister said that 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.

Accordingly, consultancy assignments for preparing Engineering, Procurement and Construction ( EPC) contract and environmental studies for these waterways are being undertaken, he said.

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, Radhakrishnan added.

"All the balance waterways (Category III) which are in the remote, inaccessible and hilly regions have been grouped in this category," he said.

These 54 rivers/canals have also been sub-divided into different clusters and initially only feasibility studies for all these waterways have been awarded. The reports are expected to be received by end of May, 2016 onwards, he added.

The Minister further said: "Investment required for development of 106 National Waterways state-wise will be available on submission of the reports."