📋 Tender Overview
There are 29 operational National Waterways (NWs) across the country. The details are below:
Operational National Waterways as of 31.07.2025
Sl. No.
NW No.
Inland Waterways Name
Cargo
Cruise
Passenger
1
NW-1
Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System (Haldia-Allahabad)
Yes
Yes
Yes
2
NW-2
Brahmaputra River (Dhubri-Sadiya)
Yes
Yes
Yes
3
NW-3
West Coast Canal
Yes
Yes
Yes
4
NW-4
Krishna Godavari River Systems
Yes
Yes
5
NW-5
East Coast Canal And Matai River/Brahmani-Kharsua-Dhamra Rivers/Mahanadi Delta Rivers
Yes
Yes
6
NW-8
Alappuzha-Changanassery Canal
Yes
Yes
Yes
7
NW-9
Alappuzha-Kottayam - Athirampuzha Canal
Yes
Yes
Yes
8
NW-14
Baitarni River
Yes
Yes
9
NW-16
Barak River
Yes
Yes
10
NW-23
Budha Balanga
Yes
11
NW-31
Dhansiri/Chathe
Yes
12
NW-44
Ichamati River
Yes
Yes
13
NW-48
Jawai-Luni-Rann Of Kutch River
Yes
14
NW-53
(Kalyan-Thane-Mumbai Waterway, Vasai Creek And Ulhas River)
Yes
Yes
15
NW-64
Mahanadi River
Yes
16
NW-86
Rupnarayan River
Yes
Yes
17
NW-94
Sone River
Yes
18
NW-97
Sunderbans Waterway
Yes
Yes
Yes
19
NW-10
Amba River
Yes
Yes
20
NW-83
Rajpuri Creek
Yes
21
NW-85
Revadanda Creek-Kundalika River System
Yes
22
NW-91
Shastri River - Jaigad Creek System
Yes
23
NW-68
Mandovi River
Yes
Yes
Yes
24
NW-111
Zuari River
Yes
Yes
25
NW-73
Narmada River
Yes
Yes
26
NW-100
Tapi River
Yes
Yes
27
NW-27
Cumberjua River
Yes
28
NW-47
Jalangi River
Yes
29
NW-87
Sabarmati River
Yes
The budget allocation and utilisation by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways for developing National Waterways in the last three years are given below:
Year
Budget allocation/released for development of NWs
(in Rs. crore)
Utilization
(in Rs. crore)
2022-23
495.31
495.31
2023-24
956.50
956.50
2024-25
1069.62
1069.62
The steps taken to promote cargo movement and to ensure sustainability of NWs in the country are below:
The infrastructure and policy measures being taken to promote cargo movement and to ensure sustainability of NWs in the country:
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.
53 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.
13 floating terminals provided on NW-2 (River Brahmaputra) along with MMTs at Pandu, Jogighopa and terminals at Bogibeel and Dhubri. Four dedicated Jetties for cruise vessels have been provided at Jogighopa, Pandu, BiswanathGhat and Neamati. In addition to this, Jetties for cruise and passengers have been constructed at Sadiya, Lyka and OriumGhat in Assam.
9 Permanent Inland Water Transport terminals with godowns and 2 Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax terminals have been constructed on NW-3 (West Coast Canal in Kerala).
04 floating concrete jetties were provided to the Govt. of Goa and installed in Mandovi River (NW-68).
04 Tourist Jetties on NW-4 (River Krishna) in Andhra Pradesh have been commissioned. Construction of 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 have been taken up.
A new Navigation Lock at Farakka and 2 Nos. Quick Pontoon Opening Mechanisms (QPOMs) have been constructed on NW-1 to facilitate smooth & faster movement of vessels.
A scheme for providing 35% incentive to promote the utilization of inland waterways transport sector by cargo owners and for scheduled service for cargo movement on NW-1 and NW-2 and NW-16 via Indo Bangladesh Protocol by Inland & Coastal Shipping Limited (ICSL) has been launched 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 National Waterways (Construction of Jetties / Terminals) Regulations 2025 have 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 the inland waterways sector.
To increase ease of doing business in the IWT sector, along the same lines as vahan and sarathi, a central data base and portal has been 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 the number of vessels and crew in the country and thus help in planning.
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).
Indo Bangladesh Protocol route no. 5 & 6 between Maia and Sultanganj has been operationalized recently with successful trial movements.
