(a) whether the National Waterways are being developed under the Public Private
Partnership (PPP) mode;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the steps taken to expedite the work on development of stretches of National
Waterway No.5 in the Eastern region;
(d) whether the Government has finalised the location for setting up the regional
office of Indian Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) for the Eastern region: and
(e) if so, the details thereof ?
MINISTER OF SHIPPING (SHRI G.K. VASAN)
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (E) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.
543 TO BE ANSWERED ON 6TH MAY, 2013 RAISED BY DR. AJAY KUMAR AND SHRI BAIJAYANT JAY
PANDA REGARDING NATIONAL WATERWAYS
(a) & (b): Five waterways have so far been notified as National Waterways (NWs).
Presently, the NWs- 1, 2 & 3 are generally being developed by Inland Waterways
Authority of India (IWAI) for shipping and navigation through budgetary grant received
from Central Government. Steps have been initiated for identifying commercially viable
stretches in NWs 4 & 5 for development in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
(c): The Talcher-Dhamra stretch of Brahmani river, Charbatia-Dhamra stretch of Matai
river and Dhamra-Paradip stretch of Brahmani/Mahanadi Delta channel (total 371 km) have
been identified for development in the first phase
(d) & (e): IWAI already has Regional Offices at Patna, Kolkata, and Guwahati in the eastern
region of the country. Besides, it has sub-offices at other places in the eastern region,
like Varanasi in UP, Bhagalpur in Bihar, Farakka and Swarupganj in West Bengal and Dhubri
and Dibrugarh in Assam.