Haldia inland waterway operational now: Min

kolkata: Union minister for Port, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal announced that the Haldia inland waterway terminal had been made operational and contract awarded.

The jetty will be soon operational for sending exim and inland cargo from Haldia to Pandu terminal in Guwahati connecting the northeast with Kolkata via National Waterway (NW) 2.

This will provide an alternate to chicken neck route for easy and cost effective movement of cargo to and from northeast to the foreign countries and other states of India.

Sonowal on Sunday interacted with various stakeholders of port and shipping industry of Kolkata and Haldia port. The major oil PSUs, the steel companies like Tata steel, Sail, terminal operators, shipping lines, barge operators, custom clearing agents and land users of Syama Prasad Mookerjee port participated in the meeting .

The minister invited all of them to be a partner in this unique opportunity of using sea and river route combination (NW 1 and NW2 ) via Kolkata Port .

He informed that depth assurance contract has been awarded to maintain NW 1 and 2 and the barge operators shall start using these waterways as depths are assured.

For barge financing, the ministry is mulling to provide guarantee to banks to give easy and soft funds for barges so that this sector can take off. The stakeholders assured that they would come forward to utilise this opportunity to make this mission a success. More than 40 key players participated in the stakeholders' conference.