BharatNotes What is Inland Waterways?
Inland waterways are navigable inland water bodies — rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks — used to move freight and passengers by vessel. India has roughly 14,500 km of navigable inland waterways. The economically important stretches are declared National Waterways (NWs) by Parliament and are developed, maintained and regulated by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), an autonomous body constituted on 27 October 1986 under the IWAI Act, 1985, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
Constitutional and Legal Basis
Inland water transport (IWT) is distinctive because it appears in all three legislative lists of the Seventh Schedule:
- Union List, Entry 24 — shipping and navigation on inland waterways declared by Parliament to be national waterways (mechanically propelled vessels).
- State List, Entry 32 — communications on, and traffic on, inland waterways.
- Concurrent List, Entry 13 — inland navigation and mechanically propelled vessels.
The National Waterways Act, 2016 (in force from 12 April 2016) merged five earlier Acts and declared a total of 111 National Waterways, replacing the earlier piecemeal approach.
The Five Principal National Waterways
| NW | River system / route | Approx. length |
|---|---|---|
| NW-1 | Ganga–Bhagirathi–Hooghly (Prayagraj–Haldia) | 1,620 km (India's longest) |
| NW-2 | Brahmaputra (Dhubri–Sadiya) | 891 km |
| NW-3 | West Coast Canal, Kerala | 205 km |
| NW-4 | Krishna–Godavari + canals (AP/Telangana) | ~1,078 km |
| NW-5 | Brahmani–Mahanadi delta + East Coast Canal | ~588 km |
NW-1, NW-2 and NW-3 are the most actively operational for cargo and passenger movement.
Significance and Current Status
IWT is the cheapest and most fuel-efficient surface mode, with lower emissions and far less land acquisition than road or rail. Cargo on National Waterways rose from 18.10 million tonnes (FY 2013-14) to a record 145.5 million tonnes in FY 2024-25 (IWAI/PIB, 2025) — a year-on-year growth of about 9.3%. Coal, iron ore, sand and fly ash together made up over two-thirds of this traffic. The number of operational waterways rose to 29 during FY 2024-25.
The flagship Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP), approved by the CCEA on 3 January 2018 at a cost of ₹5,369.18 crore with World Bank assistance, is upgrading NW-1 over the 1,390 km Haldia–Varanasi stretch. It includes multimodal terminals at Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia, an intermodal terminal at Kalughat, a navigational lock at Farakka, and community jetties.
UPSC Angle
For Prelims, memorise the river systems behind NW-1 to NW-5, the National Waterways Act, 2016 (111 NWs), and the IWAI's nodal ministry. For Mains (GS3), the key debate is the structural under-utilisation of IWT — seasonal water availability, siltation, low draft, weak last-mile connectivity and high terminal costs — versus its cost and environmental edge within a multimodal logistics strategy (PM Gati Shakti, National Logistics Policy). GS1 links it to India's drainage systems and transport geography.
