Answer:

In India, 14,500 km. of river channels are navigable, of which 3,700 km. are usable by mechanised boats. But, only 2000 km. are used. Of the total canal length of 4,300 km, 900 km. is navigable, but only 330 km. is used. While countries such as China, and Korea channelize over 40% of their passenger and freight traffic, in India the proportion is only 3.5%.

The major reasons of the mismatch between the potential and actual utilization are:

♤ Large parts of Indian waterways have inadequate depth for commercial movement of cargo.

♤ Indian rivers (especially in the northern plains) face severe problems of siltation round the year. The river bed rises, impeding movement of cargo during non- monsoon months.

♤ Fluctuating depth due to seasonal rainfall.

♤ Inadequate Air draft. Multiple bridges with low vertical clearance obstruct passage of bigger inland vessels.

♤ Shortage of Inland water Vessels because vessel buildings is highly capital intensive. The private sector is reluctant to invest in barges unless long term cargo commitments for onward/return trips are made from user industries.

♤ Lack of terminals including those with inter-modal connectivity inhibits connectivity to end user.

♤ Lack of Night navigation facilities such as DGPS and River Information System (RIS).

♤ Severe shortage of MRO (Maintenance, Repair and overhaul) facilities for inland water transport vessels.

♤ Lack of potential multimodal corridors and detailed mapping of waterways and industrial clusters, multimodal transport hubs in inland water transport corridor.

♤ While inland water transport is cost competitive in general with other transport modes such as rail and road, the situation is sometimes, distorted by preferential treatment offered to other modes.