Fuel cess for projects
The Shipping Ministry has proposed using part of the fuel cess collected for building national highways for expansion of National Waterways.
Speaking at the Infrastructure Session of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Convention in Mumbai on August 22, 2016, Minister Nitin Gadkari has sought allocation of 5% of the Central Road Fund for development of Inland Waterways.
“My Ministry has prepared the proposal, but the final decision will be taken by the Ministry of Finance. I am pursuing the matter” Gadkari disclosed.
Central Road Fund (CRF) is a non-lapsable fund created under the Central Road Fund Act 2000 out of a cess imposed on petrol and high-speed diesel. The funds are for developing and maintaining national highways, state roads and railway over and under bridges.
Part of CRF could help in developing 14,500 km of rivers and canal network to transport goods.
Gadkari said it is cheaper to transport goods by water as compared to road or rail.
Currently cargo movement along the five existing national waterways is paltry 3% of all cargo movement in India.
“We want to raise the share of waterways in overall cargo movements to 15%” he said.
A recent example was shipment of 200 made in India Maruti cars from Varanasi to Kolkata as part of a pilot run on waterways.
A Rs4,200 crore River Ganga project from Varanasi to Haldia will facilitate movement of up to 2,000 tonne vessels. The World Bank assisted project will be completed in six years.
The National Waterways Act 2016 has declared 111 inland projects as National Waterways.
Presently these projects in operation are Allahabad-Haldia Ganga Waterway (NW1), Brahmaputra (NW2), West Coast Canal in Kerala (NW3), Mandovi river in Goa (NW 68), Sundarbans Waterway in West Bengal (NW97) and Zurari River (NW 111) are presently operational. fii-news.com
