The Government of India, the Government of West Bengal and the World Bank today signed a $105 million project to improve the inland water transport infrastructure in Kolkata, West Bengal. The $105 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a maturity of 17 years, including a grace period of 7 years.
The West Bengal Inland Water Transport, Logistics and Spatial Development Project will facilitate passenger and freight movement across the Hooghly river, undertake spatial planning to improve accessibility in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area, enhance the quality of life of its residents, and contribute to the growth of the state’s logistics sector.
The agreement was signed by Dr. C S Mohapatra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Shri Rajdeep Dutta, Deputy Resident Commissioner, Government of West Bengal, and Mr Junaid Ahmad, Country Director – India, World Bank.
Indian officials said that the emerging inland waterways are a cost effective and an environment-friendly option for passenger and freight movement. This project would help improve the river transport infrastructure in West Bengal and help in the economic development of the state by connecting the hinterland with markets and job centers in Kolkata’s Metropolitan Area.
The project will cover the five most populous districts of southern West Bengal, including its urban agglomeration —the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA), where around 30 million people or one-third of West Bengal’s population live.
The Hooghly river, a distributary of the river Ganga, in Kolkata separates the Kolkata port from its large consumption centers, which are, its wholesale market and its vast hinterland comprising the entire North East of India and the two landlocked neighboring countries of Nepal and Bhutan. More than 80 percent of freight and passenger traffic currently cross the river via Kolkata’s three bridges. To curtail congestion, the city has restricted the movement of trucks to the port to certain bridges and only during limited hours, reducing access to the port and increasing the cost of logistics.
West Bengal’s ferries can provide an efficient, flexible mode of public transport for both passengers and freight, saving on operating costs and travel time when compared with road journeys. The existing ferry system, operational for decades, caters to less than 2 percent of the passenger traffic and a small portion of the freight movement. Developing the river transport infrastructure will enable a large population of the state to utilize its waterways, have alternative, multi-modal options for transportation for both freight and passengers, connect the hinterland with Kolkata Metropolitan Area’s markets and job centers, and emerge as a logistics hub.
(Published from PIB)