Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal: Cargo handling capacity reached 133 million metric tonnes in last ten years

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Kaziranga: In the last decade, the freight handling capacity has increased to 133 million metric tons, according to Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. A day earlier, Sonowal spoke at the 2nd Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) conference at Kaziranga.

Our ability to handle freight has increased to 133 million metric tons during the last ten years. Our National Waterways have received investments of over Rs 60,000 crores. We launched projects totaling Rs 1400 crores for 21 of our nation’s states at the first meeting of the Inland Waterways Development Council,” he said.

“We aim to increase our cargo capacity to 200 million metric tonnes by 2030 and invest more than Rs 50,000 crore in this sector in the next 5 years,” said the minister.

Major decisions to improve infrastructure along national waterways were made on Friday at the Indian Waterways Development Council (IWDC), the highest policy-making organization for the development and propagation of inland waterways in India.

In addition, the following ministers participated in the meeting: Shantanu Thakur, the Union Minister of State for MoPSW; Aleixo Sequeira, the Ports Minister of Goa; Jogen Mohan, the Transport Minister of Assam; Khashim Vashum, the Transport Minister of Manipur; Satish Sharma, the Transport Minister of Jammu & Kashmir; Pu Vanlalhlana, the Transport Minister of Mizoram; and Ojing Tasing, the Transport Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways’ (MoPSW) principal body for waterway development, hosted the second IWDC conference and announced investments of over Rs 50,000 crore over the next five years.

In this context, a number of new projects totaling over Rs 1400 crore were unveiled at Kaziranga on Friday, spanning 21 inland waterway states.

In order to maximize the economic potential of inland water bodies, the IWDC was established in 2023. This endeavor necessitates highly coordinated center-state connections, partnerships, and cooperation in the spirit of cooperative federalism.