‘Waterway users rose from 33L to 1.6cr in 5 years’

Gandhinagar: The number of passengers using national waterways for travel has seen a substantial increase from 33.16 lakh in 2019-20 to 1.61 crore in 2023-24.
The movement of cargo also increased from 73.64 million tonnes in 2019-20 to 133.03 million tonnes in 2023-24, the Union govt informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday in response to a question by MP Parimal Nathwani.
Nathwani sought details of the number of passengers who used water for travel and the quantity of cargo transported through waterways during the last five years. He also sought information on govt measures to promote the use of waterways to transport cargo and passengers.
According to a written reply by Union minister for shipping and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, India has 29 operational national waterways (NW) of which four — Narmada river (NW-73), Tapi river (NW-100), Jawai-Luni-Rann of Kutch river (NW-48), and Sabarmati river (NW-87), are in Gujarat.
Listing govt initiatives to promote inland water transport (IWT), Sonowal said a scheme providing a 35% incentive to promote use of IWT by cargo owners and to establish scheduled service for cargo movement on NW-1, NW-2, and NW-16 via the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol has been approved. He added that 140 public sector units have been approached to plan their movement using the IWT mode.