2019 Made A Quite Ripple In Coastal Shipping And Transport Via Inland Waterways In India
There was a time when it was exigent and costly to carry the goods through inland waterways but in the last few years, government has made a booming initiative to coastal shipment and Inland Waterways Transport (IWT) in an effort to reduce logistics cost to less than 10 % of GDP similar to that of developed countries such as Germany. The days have arrived as when the cargo from Assam travels all the way down the line & vice-versa via Inland Waterways Transport (ITW) and coastal shipping.
Railways & Roadways contribute to nearly 90% of India’s cargo movement between states and cities, but due to the overcrowding of the players in the market, the trade has been suffering a plunge despite well-established networks. Hence, to move on to the development lateral, next segment is to boost coastal shipping and IWT, on which government is taking qualitative measures to boost both major and non-major ports which in turn has attracted huge investment and enough capacity has been generated.
Sagarmala scheme
To enrich India’s logistics sector and to boost the performance, Sagarmala Programme, an initiative by the government of India was instigated, to visualize unlocking the potential of waterways and the coastline to minimize infrastructural investments.
It predicts to set up new mega ports, revolutionizing India's existing ports, developing of 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) and Coastal Employment Units, enhancing port connectivity via road, rail, multi-modal logistics parks, pipelines & waterways and promoting coastal community development, with the aim of boosting merchandise exports by US$110 billion and generating around 10,000,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Sagarmala Programme is the flagship programme of the Ministry of Shipping to promote port-led development in the country by exploiting India’s 7,500 km long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways and its strategic location on key international maritime trade routes.
Growth in cargo
The statistics show that movement of cargo via Inland Water Transport has increased to 72.31 mt. in 2019 from 55.03 mt. in 2018 with plans to push it up to 150 mt. by 2025.
After 2019 ending on a high note for both coastal shipping and IWT, 2020 could be more promising.
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