(a) whether the Government has started dredging work in Ganga river and if so, the details thereof, phase-wise;
(b) whether the Government is aware of piles of sands in the lower deltaic part of Ganga river from Kolkata port to Bay of Bengal and if so, the status thereof; and
(c) the action taken by the Government to stop erosion along the banks of Ganga river from flood and remove turbidity for smooth transportation of ships and vessel?
(a) Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has undertaken implementation of the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) for capacity augmentation of navigation on National Waterway-1 (NW-1) on the Haldia – Varanasi stretch of Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank. Under JMVP maintenance dredging works have been started in Farakka-Kahalgaon stretch (146 Kms), Sultanganj-Mahendrapur stretch (74 kms) and Mahendrapur-Barh stretch (71 kms) through Performance Based Assured Depth Dredging contracts. The contracts were awarded on 09.04.2018, 12.04.2019 and 12.04.2019 at costs of Rs. 177.00 crore, 159.30 crore and 182.9 crore respectively.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata (SMPK) situated on the bank of river Hooghly (which is a distributary of river Ganga), undertakes maintenance dredging in its shipping channel (from Sandheads i.e. mouth of the river) leading to Haldia and Kolkata in a regular manner, since the channel is subject to perennial siltation from upland discharge. Haldia Channel requires dredging to the extent of about 10 million cubic meters per annum whereas, Kolkata Channel requires dredging to the tune of about 1 million cubic meters per annum.
(b) Piles of sands/ bars exist in the shipping channel leading to Kolkata and Haldia, which are monitored through hydrographic survey. Dredging is carried out, whenever required, to maintain navigability .
To carry out a study on dynamic nature of the channel in the lower deltaic region of river Hooghly (which is a distributary of river Ganga), Ministry has set up a Centre of Excellence at IIT-Madras in the name of “National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways & Coasts (NTCPWC)” to act as a technology arm of MoPSW for the purpose of providing technological support services to the ports etc., through scientific research, with reference to a variety of problems being faced by the ports. Since then, NTCPWC, IIT-Madras has been carrying out intensive monitoring studies through mathematical modeling for long & short term dredging projects in the shipping channel. Further, SMPK has its own Hydrographic wing to study the Hooghly river in a regular manner from Nabdwip to Sandheads. SMPK’s Marine and Hydraulic Study departments regularly study the hydrographic charts, plans and share the same with NTCPWC for scientific analysis. Through continuous maintenance dredging, the annual average draft of Haldia channel has increased from 7.5 m to 8.2 m.
(c) Flood management being under the purview of the States, the schemes for flood control and erosion control are formulated and implemented by concerned States as per their priority. The Union Government supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical guidance and promotional financial assistance for management of flood in critical areas.
Within the port limit, SMPK undertakes Bank Protection Works (including river regulatory measures) in the areas where erosion of river bank affect navigability of shipping channel, subject to availability of internal resources. Bank Protection works have been carried out by IWAI in various Terminal locations namely, Multi-Modal Terminal (MMT) Varanasi, MMT Sahibganj, Inter-Modal Terminal (IMT) Kalughat and New Navigation Lock at Farakka under JMVP.
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