Waterway UPSC| Transport, Communication, and Trade | Geography of India ~ Civil Services Self Study

Table of contents:

The following are features of the waterway;

There are two types of waterways:

Inland Waterway:

It includes rivers, canals, backwater, and creeks.
Before the railways, it was cheap and the most widely used transport. Later, the inland waterway faced competition with road and railways and also diversion of river water for irrigation purposes made the river non-navigable.
The Inland navigable waterway is dependent on the width and depth of the channel, continuity of water flow, and technology usage.
At present, India has a 14500 km navigable inland waterway with 5,685 are navigable by mechanized flat bottom vessels.
The potential of Inland waterways is approx 1 % of the total transport network.

Inland waterway Authority was set up in 1986 for the development, maintenance, and regulation of national waterways.

The following waterway have been developed as national waterways by the government;

National Waterways-1( NW-1);

National Waterways-2( NW-2);

National Waterways-3( NW-3);

National Waterways-4( NW-4);

National Waterways-5( NW-5);

Ocean Waterways;

We have a long coastline with 13 major and more than 200 minor ports that provide huge potential for ocean waterways.

Foreign trade;

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