National Waterway-1 on Ganga passes through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
The ghats of Varanasi symbolize birth, life and moksha (salvation). Today, Ram Ghat, the first of the 80 ghats in this holy city, will get a new dimension.
Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, will lay the foundation stone of the inland waterway terminal at Varanasi and flag off the trial run of two cargo vessels from Varanasi to Haldia near Kolkata.
The pilot ship will be carrying 200 new Maruti Suzuki cars and other construction material from Varanasi to Kolkata.
"The waterways are the new frontier to bring down logistical cost in India. Big manufacturing and exporting nations like USA and China have achieved to lower logistical costs to 8-12 per cent. In India it's 18 per cent minimum on an average. For Indian products to get competitive the logistical cost has to be brought down," Mr Gadkari told NDTV.
Mr Gadkari explained that the cost of ferrying goods via waterways is as low as 30-50 paise per kilometre per tonne which is much below the cost of hauling goods by road.
The minister will also inaugurate a Multi-Modal Terminal or MMT at Varanasi. A MMT means a hub which can handle rail road and waterway transport.
The ministry has big plans for using Ganga river as one of the arterial waterways. Five big terminals are planned between Varanasi and Haldia. Several jetties are also being constructed.
To keep the waterways operational through the year, a Rs 7000 crore project has been cleared which will include dredging at several points. A senior official in the shipping ministry said, "The idea is to maintain three metre draft in the river at all times. Specially designed and altered barges are being promoted."
"We hope that by 2018 we are able to ensure that at least seven per cent of India's goods traffic is moved by waterways. Currently, only 3.6 per cent of goods traffic is carried on rivers. In China this is 47 per cent," Mr Gadkari said.
The terminal in Varanasi, costing Rs 170 crore, is likely to be completed by August 2018. It will have road and rail connectivity with proposed links on National Highway-7 and Jeonathpur Railway station in Uttar Pradesh respectively.
The cargo handling capacity of the terminal on completion of Phase 1 is estimated to be 1.2 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA). The cargo that will be handled at the terminal includes stone chips, cement, food grains, fertilisers, sugar etc.
The terminal will have facilities including berthing space for two vessels simultaneously, storage area, transit shed, parking areas, among others. It will also have a floating jetty for passenger transportation.
The project includes development of fairway, construction of new MMTs at Varanasi, Haldia, and Sahibganj in Jharkhand, strengthening of open river navigation system, conservancy works, modern River Information System (RIS), Digital Global Positioning System (DGPS), night navigation facilities, modern methods of channel marking, construction of a new state of the art navigational lock at Farakka etc.
National Waterway-1 is a waterway of national significance passing through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. In Phase II, the project will reach Kanpur on the Ganga. Similar projects are being tested on the Brahmaputra and other rivers.
The ministry keen to turn waterways as highways of the future has started anther pilot project. A shipping ministry advisor said, "As a test case cars manufactured in Chennai were brought via sea route to Kandla's JNPT facility and then transported to Delhi and other north Indian towns. The cost turned out to be almost 50 per cent compared to road transport."
The minister said, "Imagine from a town like Indore alone 45,000 containers travel to the JNPT Kandla facility crossing the breadth of the country. Waterways can reduce congestion, pollution delays and costs."