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Waterway proposed to link K Nagar, Angul, Talcher

Tuesday, 24 December 2013 09:10 administrator
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The Pioneer             24.12.2013

Waterway proposed to link K Nagar, Angul, Talcher

Looking at the massive traffic requirement of the industrial hubs of Kalinganagar, Angul and Talcher, the State Government has proposed connecting of the Inland Waterway No-5 to these regions. The State Government, in its latest move, has recently sent a proposal in this regard to the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).

According to sources in the Department of Commerce & Transport (DoCT), this stretch of the proposed waterway is commercially viable and can be undertaken under public-private partnership (PPP) mode. This water route would provide an alternative mode of transportation from coalmines and industrial zones to the Paradip and Dhamra Ports.

The State Government would form a joint venture firm with participation of the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) and the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) to develop this stretch, said an official.

For development of inland water transport, the Union Government has declared the Talcher-Dhamra stretch of the Brahmani-Kharsuan-Dhamra river system along with the Geonkhali-Charbatia stretch of the East Coast Canal stretch of Matei river and Mahanadi river between Mangalgadi and Paradip as National Waterway No-5 in both Odisha and West Bengal.

PPT Chairman Sudhansu Sekhara Mishra, during his tenure as Member Traffic of the IWAI, took a lot of interest in developing the project in the interest of the State, and now he is actively supporting the move of the State Government, said a senior officer in the DoCT.

Development of inland waterways would go a long way in releasing the congestion on the road for which the State Government is keen to develop the canal portion of the project. This is because the IWAI Chairman is also keen to open a Regional Office of the IWAI in Bhubaneswar and undertake the project work in a time-bound manner. However the canal portion would be taken up in the second phase after development of river portion, said an official.

Meanwhile, the IWAI has taken the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop the river portion of the Inland Waterway No-5 and the ADB has already appointed a consultant to formulate project proposal for selection of a concessionaire to take up development of the river portion on PPP mode. The consultant, Grant Thornton, has already started its work in this regard.