New Delhi: The number of passengers who have utilised National Waterways for travel shot up from 33.16 lakh in 2019-20 to 1.61 crore in 2023-24. Moreover, the Cargo Moved also increase from 73.64 million tons (MT) in 2019-20 to 133.03 million tons in 2023-24. Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal provided this information in the Rajya Sabha on April 1, 2025 while replying to a question raised by RS MP Parimal Nathwani.

According to the statement of the minister, there are 29 operational National Waterways (NW)in the country, of which four waterways namely Narmada River (NW-73), Tapi River (NW-100), Jawai-Luni-Rann of Kutch River (NW-48) and Sabarmati River (NW-87) are in Gujarat.

Some of the initiatives for promoting Inland Water Transport (IWT) taken by the Government are as under:

• A scheme for providing 35% incentive to promote the utilization of inland waterways transport sector by cargo owners and for establishing scheduled service for cargo movement on NW-1 and NW-2 and NW-16 via Indo Bangladesh Protocol has been approved.

• The National Waterways (Construction of Jetties / Terminals) Regulations 2025 has been notified, allowing private companies to invest and operate Inland Waterways infrastructure by providing a clear regulatory framework to attract private sector investment for facilitating the growth of inland waterways sector.

• For modal shift of cargo to waterways, more than 140 Public Sector Units have been approached to plan their movement using Inland Water Transport mode. They have been requested to outline their current status of cargo movement through the waterways and their plan for modal shift of cargo.

• Fairway maintenance works (river training, maintenance dredging, channel marking and regular hydrographic surveys) are taken up in various National Waterways (NWs).· 49 community jetties, 20 floating terminals, 3 Multi-Modal Terminals (MMTs) and 1 Inter-Modal Terminal (IMT) have been constructed on NW-1 (River Ganga) in addition to 5 pre-existing permanent terminals.

• 9 Permanent Inland Water Transport terminals with godowns and 2 Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax terminals have been constructed on NW-3 (West Coast Canal in Kerala).

Nathwani wanted to know the details about cargo transported through waterways annually during the last five years; the number of passengers who have utilised waterways for travel during the same period; and the measures taken by Government to promote the use of waterways for cargo and passenger transportation. DeshGujarat