Lok Sabha Question No. 4652 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-28
Subject: Intermodal Connectivity for Freight Traffic
Ministry: PORTS, SHIPPING AND WATERWAYS
Asked by: Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PORTS, SHIPPING AND WATERWAYS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4652

ANSWERED ON 28.03.2025

## INTERMODAL CONNECTIVITY FOR FREIGHT TRAFFIC

4652. SHRI RAJIV PRATAP RUDY:

Will the Minister of PORTS, SHIPPING AND WATERWAYS be pleased to state: पȅन , पोत पįरवहन और जलमागŊ मंũी

(a) the current modal share of freight traffic in the country with a breakdown of the share of waterways, railways and road transport; (b)  the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  enhance  intermodal  connectivity  for freight  movement  and  improve  coordination  between  waterways,  railways  and  road transport to reduce logistics costs; (c)    the  progress  of  the  Kalughat  terminal  including  its  current  status,  expected completion timeline and its role in boosting freight traffic in Bihar, particularly in Saran; (d)    the  total  freight  traffic  handled  through  inland  waterways  in  Bihar,  particularly  in Saran  in  the  last  three  years  and  the  measures  being  taken  to  increase  cargo movement through these routes; and (e)   whether the Government is ensuring that connectivity of newly notified waterways with major ports, rail and road networks is integrated at the project planning stage, as recommended by the relevant committee and the specific steps taken in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF PORTS, SHIPPING AND WATERWAYS

(SHRI SARBANANDA SONOWAL)

(a) Current  modal  share  of  Inland  Water  Transport  in  the  country's  freight  traffic  is approximately 2 %.  As per NITI Aayog Report  titled  'FAST  TRACKING  FREIGHT IN INDIA' of 2021, railways and road transport's modal share of freight traffic is 18 % and 71 % respectively.

(b) Government has taken following steps to enhance intermodal connectivity for freight movement and improve coordination between waterways, railways and road transport to reduce logistics costs:-

(i)    Integration  of  developed  Multi  Modal  Terminals  (MMTs)  at  Varanasi,  Sahibganj, Haldia  and  Intermodal  terminal  at  Kalughat  along  with  other terminals  on  NW-1    with Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Port, Kolkata.

(ii)  Development of cargo aggregation hub - Freight Village at Varanasi and Integrated Cluster-cum-Logistics Park, Sahibganj on NW-1.

(iii)   The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Co-operation, Department of Fertiliser, Ministry of Food & Public Distribution, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Ministry of  Steel  and  Ministry  of  Coal  have  been  requested  to  advise  the  Public  Sector Undertakings under their jurisdiction to utilise Inland Water Transport (IWT) mode as far as possible and earmark certain percentage of their cargo for IWT mode.

(c) The  construction  for  Inter-Modal  Terminal  (IMT),  Kalughat  has  been  completed . Kalughat  terminal  has  primarily  been  built  to  handle  cargo  traffic  originating/bound  to north  Bihar  and  Nepal.  Key  findings  of  traffic  studies  highlighting  the  role  of  IMT Kalughat  in  boosting  freight  traffic  in  Bihar,  particularly  in  Saran  are  detailed  at Annexure-1.

(d) The  total  freight  traffic  through  Waterways  in  Bihar  for  the  last  three  years  is  as detailed below.

(In Metric Tons)

| NWNo.   | 2021-22    | 2022-23    | 2023-24    |
|---------|------------|------------|------------|
| NW-1    | 10,927,788 | 13,169,853 | 12,824,112 |
| NW-94   | -          | -          | 1,160,929  |

The policy and infrastructure measures taken to increase cargo movement on NWs in the country including Bihar are detailed in Annexure-2.

(e) Connectivity of newly notified waterways with major ports, rail and road networks is taken  into  account at  the  project  planning  stage  and  the  aspect is well  taken  care  of while completing the Feasibility Study Reports (FSR) and Detailed Project Reports(DPRs) of all new NWs. Steps taken are mentioned in reply to (b) above.

## (i) TRAFFIC FORECAST

As  per  the  traffic  study  done,  Kalughat  IMT  is  an  ideal  location  for  transferring containers,  shipped  on  the  NW-1  from  Kolkata  GRT,  for  onward  trucking  into  the Katmandu Valley of Nepal. Also, no bridge needs to be crossed by truck traffic, as this area lies north of the Ganges River.

## (ii) PROJECTED TRAFFIC

Traffic  through  a  future  Kalughat  IMT  would  be  concentrated  on  dry-bulk  and containerized  cargo.  Table  Below  shows  the  Kalughat  Terminal  cargo  forecast, 2020-2045

| Year   | Bagged   | General Cargo   | Container   | Total   |
|--------|----------|-----------------|-------------|---------|
|        | (MMT)    | (MMT)           | (MMT)       | (MMT)   |
| 2020   | 0.11     | 0.06            | 4.03        | 4.21    |
| 2025   | 0.12     | 0.07            | 4.35        | 4.54    |
| 2035   | 0.12     | 0.08            | 4.79        | 4.99    |
| 2045   | 0.12     | 0.08            | 5.17        | 5.38    |

Total cargo traffic in the year 2045 would amount to 5.38 MMT, of which more than 90% would constitute containerized cargo.

## (iii) TRAFFIC TO BE HANDLED

Despite  Kalughat  having  high  traffic  potential,  considering  the  space  constraint,  it was  decided  to  handle  Container  traffic  only  at  this  terminal.  Although  traffic projection shows substantial volume of containers, capacity of the berth and backup yard  will  govern  the  actual  handling  of  Container  volume.  The  capacity  of  the terminal with one berth will be maximum 77000 TEU per annum.

To boost freight traffic, IWAI has constructed the following facilities at IMT Kalughat such as Storage Areas, Terminal administration building, Worker's amenity building, Electrical substation building, Security office, Weigh bridge control room, Toilet Block Gate house, boundary wall and fencing, Underground reservoir and pump house etc.

## (a) Policy Measures:

· A scheme for providing 35% incentive to promote the utilization of inland waterways transport  sector  by  cargo  owners  and  for  establishing scheduled  service  for cargo movement on NW-1 and NW-2 and NW-16 via Indo Bangladesh Protocol has been approved by the Government. This scheme is expected to divert 800 million tonne Km cargo on IWT mode, which is nearly 17% of the current cargo of 4700 million tonne Km on NWs. The scheme is at a cost of less than 100 Crore for three years and can be scaled up or  modified  depending on the  success  of  the  scheme.  The scheme also aims to start a scheduled waterway cargo service between Kolkata and Varanasi/Pandu  using  IWAI  vessels  through  Shipping  Corporation  of  India  for demonstration effect and to increase trust of cargo movers/owners in the waterway movement.

·  An  extension  of  the  tonnage  tax  scheme  to  inland  vessels  registered  under  the Indian Vessels Act, 2021 is announced during the budget presented on 01.02.2025. Inland vessels operating on National Waterways, rivers, and canals,will be benefited. This move is expected to boost the industry's competitiveness and encourage more cargo owners to use inland waterways for transportation. A tonnage tax system is a special  taxation  policy  for  shipping  companies  where  tax  is  not  based  on  actual profits  but  on  the  size  (tonnage)  of  the  vessel.  It  provides  stable,  predictable,  and lower taxation for vessel owners, reducing their financial burden.

· The National Waterways (Construction of Jetties / Terminals) Regulations 2025 has been notified, allowing private companies to invest  and operate Inland Waterways infrastructure  by  providing  a  clear  regulatory  framework  to  attract  private  sector investment for facilitating the growth of inland waterways sector.

· Integration with Ports: World over, waterways are most optimally utilised if they are linked to ports. Kolkata port offers an opportunity of seamless integration with NW1 and can also help in resolving the problem of multi modality. Therefore, Multi Modal Terminals at Varanasi, Sahibganj, Haldia and Intermodal terminal at Kalughat along with other terminals on NW-1 are being transferred to Shyama Prasad Mookherjee Port, Kolkata for operation and management.

·  Digitalisation:  To  increase  ease  of  doing  business  in  the  IWT  sector,  along  the same  lines  as  'vahan'  and  'sarathi',  a  central  data  base  and  portal  is  being developed for registration of vessels and crew all over the country. This will facilitate registration of vessels and crew digitally and would also provide accurate status on number of vessels and crew in the country and thus help in planning.

· Cargo Aggregation: The cargo movement on the waterways suffer from problems of  multimodality  because  of  lack  of  industries  along  the  waterways.  Therefore, projects for development of cargo aggregation hub - Freight Village at Varanasi and Integrated  Cluster-  cum-Logistics  Park,  Sahibganj  have  been  taken  up.  NHLML,  a PSU  under  the  Ministry  of  Road  Transport  and  Highways  has  been  engaged  for development  of  these  MMLPs.  The  work  of  Rail  connectivity  for  three  MMTs  has been assigned to M/s Indian Port and Rail Company Ltd. (A PSU under MoPSW).

·  River  Cruise  Tourism:  To  promote river  cruise  tourism,  number  of  meetings  with cruise operators have been organised. Based on their feedback, steps like provision of  shore  power  at  IWAI  terminals,  extra  berthing  arrangements,  etc.  have  been made. New cruise circuits have been identified and are being operationalised. A total of  34 Waterways have been  identified for cruise movement out  of which  10  have already been operationalised.

· IBP Route: Indo Bangladesh Protocol route no. 5 & 6 between Maia and Sultanganj has been operationalized recently with successful trial movements. Regular movement  shall  commence  shortly,  once  the  consent  of  Bangladesh  Side  is received.

·  Shift  of  cargo  by  PSUs:  For  modal  shift  of  cargo  to  waterways,  more  than  140 Public  Sector  Units  have  been  approached  to  plan  their  movement  using  Inland Water Transport mode. They have been requested to outline their current status of cargo movement through the waterways and their plan for modal shift of cargo. The Ministry of PNG,  Co-operation/ Fertiliser, Food & Public distribution,  Heavy industries,  Steel  and  Coal  have  been  requested  to  advise  the  PSUs  under  their jurisdiction to utilise IWT mode as far as possible and earmark certain percentage of their cargo for IWT mode keeping in line the MIV targets.

## (b) Infrastructure measures:

(i)  Fairway  maintenance  works  (river  training,  maintenance  dredging,  channel marking  and  regular  hydrographic  surveys)  are  taken  up  in  various  National Waterways (NWs) for providing a navigation channel of 35/45 m width and 2.0 / 2.2 / 2.5 / 3.0 m least available depth (LAD) for operation of vessels.

(ii) 49 community jetties, 20 floating terminals, 3 Multi-Modal Terminals (MMTs) and 1  Inter-Modal  Terminal  (IMT)  have  been  constructed  on  NW-1  (River  Ganga)  in addition to 5 pre-existing permanent terminals.

(iii) 12 floating terminals provided on NW-2 (River Brahmaputra) along with MMTs at Pandu, Jogighopa and terminals at Bogibeel and Dhubri are also used for berthing of river cargo/ cruise vessels. Four dedicated Jetties have been provided at Jogighopa, Pandu,  Biswanath  Ghat  and  Neamati  with  an  investment  of  Rs.  7.09  crores.  In addition to this, Jetties for cruise and passengers have been constructed at Sadiya, Lyka and Orium Ghat in Assam.

(iv)9  Permanent Inland Water Transport  terminals  with  godowns  and  2  Ro-Ro/RoPax terminals have been constructed on NW-3 (West Coast Canal in Kerala).

(v) 03 floating concrete jetties were provided to Govt. of Goa in 2020 and 01 during September 2022 and installed in Mandovi River (NW-68). 4 Tourist Jetties on part of NW-4  (River  Krishna)  in  Andhra  Pradesh  have  been  commissioned  and  12  Nos. floating  jetties  on  NW-110  (River  Yamuna)  in  Mathura-Vrindavan  stretch  in  Uttar Pradesh, 2 Jetties on NW-73 (River Narmada) & 2 Jetties on NW-37 (River Gandak) in Bihar are under execution.

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