Rs 53.69 billion project to smoother navigation over river Ganga. Here?s how!

In order to develop the river stretch between Varanasi and Haldia for navigation of large vessels, Rs 53.69 billion has been funded by the Centre and the World Bank. The project on the Ganga (National Waterway-1) is one of the 111 inland waterway projects notified by the Centre; it aims to facilitate the movement of large vessels (up to 1,500-2,000 tonne weight) along the Ganga waterway and include the creation of three multimodal terminals ? at Varanasi, Sahibganj, and Haldia; three intermodal terminals ? at Ghazipur, Kalughat, and Triveni; one new navigation lock (Farakka); works for fairway development; a river information system (RIS); vessel repair and maintenance facilities (Doriganj); warehouses; customs clearance facilities; boarding and lodging facilities; and five Roll On-Roll Off (RO-RO) crossings to help vehicles shift seamlessly from road to river mode and vice versa.

While the multi-modal terminal at Varanasi costs Rs 1.69 billion, the second terminal at Sahibhanj in Jharkhand is expected to be build at Rs 2.80 billion and is most likely to be ready by June 2019. The third terminal at Haldia will reportedly cost Rs 5.17 billion and is expected to be ready by January 2020. The cargo handling capacity of the Varanasi terminal, Sahibganj terminal and Haldia terminal is estimated at 0.58 mtpa, 2.24 mtpa and 3.18 mtpa, respectively.

Currently, the cargo from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh takes land routes to reach Mumbai and Kandla sea ports, instead of going to the closer port in Kolkata. The development of NW-1 is expected to direct this freight to the Kolkata-Haldia complex, reducing logistics costs.