In order to move goods from four industrial clusters to ports of Paradip and Dhamra, the central government is preparing a Rs 12,000 crore inland waterway on the Brahmani river in Odisha to move goods from the four industrial clusters. Under the proposed plan the infrastructure component will be done by the government on an engineering, procurement and construction model.
“A special purpose vehicle between Coal India Limited (CIL), Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Paradip Port and the Odisha government will be developing the infrastructure required to operationalise the National Water 5 (NW5),” a senior government official said,
noting that an in-principle approval to form the SPV has been taken by the respective company boards.
“There is also a commitment from the state government to take up the project,” the official added and said the presently 1 million tonne of cargo per annum (mtpa) is moved on NW5 and is likely to touch 12-14 mtpa by 2030.
Once completed, the terminal and vessel operations will be in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. JSW Group and Adani Group are said to have shown interest donning this role, as per a report.
According to experts, industrial clusters of Angul, Kalinga Nagar, Jagatsinghpur and Dhenkanal in Odisha will need evacuation since the existing road and rail network is congested, it was reported.
Apart from this, there is also potential for import of coking coal from ports to steel plants in the region. Similarly, there is a demand for evacuation of thermal coal from Talcher to ports and then to power plants in southern India using the coastal shipping route.
In Financial Year 2022-23, India has moved 96.31 million tonnes (mt) of cargo using waterways up from 83.61 mt in 2021-22. Under the Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030, cargo movement on national waterways is targeted to touch 200 mt by 2030.
