TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The Union government and the World Bank have signed a $375 million loan agreement for developing the country’s first modern inland waterway on the river Ganga between Varanasi and the seaport of Haldia. The 1,360 km-stretch of the waterway will bring thousands of jobs in cargo logistics and transportation to one of the most populous regions in the country.
The project would facilitate the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to put in place infrastructure and navigation services needed to develop the waterway — known as National Waterway 1 — as an efficient logistics artery for northern India, the World Bank said in a statement.
The statement also claimed that the capacity augmentation of National Waterway 1 (Jal Marg Vikas) Project will help save more than 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions annually by moving cargo away from fossil fuel-consuming road and rail networks.
The project, approved by the Union Cabinet last month, falls in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and major districts under its ambit are Varanasi, Ghazipur, Ballia, Buxar, Chhapra, Vaishali, Patna, Begusarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur, Sahibganj, Murshidabad, Pakur, Hoogly and Kolkata. The route is one of the country’s most densely populated areas, and a sizeable 40 percent of the domestically traded goods either originate from this resource-rich region or are destined for its markets.
