Kerala - Kochi   

National Waterway III to be ready by early next month

KOCHI: The National Waterway III (NW III), connecting Kollam and Kottapuram in Thrissur, will become operational by the beginning of November.

This would mean that a sizeable share of goods now being carried through the congested roads will shift to the waterways, since it is economical, non-polluting and a much safer way of transport. “Our aim is to operationalise the waterway to coincide with Keralappiravi,” said B.R. Menon, adviser to the State government for the development of inland waterways and ports and chairman of the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation.

Mr. Menon said that a unit of one horsepower can carry 50 kg load through the road, 500 kg through rail and 5,000 kg through the waterway.

A pilot run using a Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) barge carrying hydrochloric acid from Travancore Cochin Chemicals, Kochi, to Kerala Minerals and Metals, Chavara, was carried out recently.

The 205-km-long Kollam-Kottapuram waterway was declared as NW III in 1993 and deepening (dredging) work began soon after. But there was opposition to dredging and fishermen were reluctant to relocate their nets. Lack of coordination between the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and the State government agencies like the Departments of Water Resources and Fisheries made matters worse.

Bottlenecks were cleared and the work gained impetus during the past year, soon after the then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam mooted ‘smart waterways’ as the ideal mode of transporting goods and people.

Taking into account the lack of coordination between the IWAI and the State government agencies and the absence of a dedicated team of experts, the State will soon get a Kerala Inland Water Development Authority. The authority would ensure that the banks of water bodies were safe.Seven terminals had been built in the route for storing goods.

Two more were on the anvil — one in Alappuzha and the other a container terminal in Kollam. Of the 205 km, dredging has to be carried out in a total of 20 km — at Chavara, Karuvatta and Munambam — to increase their depth to two metres.

Sources in the IWAI said the agency had so far spent Rs.90 crore on NW III.

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