| भारतीय अन्तर्देशीय जलमार्ग प्राधिकरण | |
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 27 October 1986 |
| Type | Statutory authority |
| Headquarters | A-13, Sector-1 Noida, Uttar Pradesh |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent department | Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways |
| Website | http://www.iwai.nic.in/ |
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the statutory authority in charge of the waterways in India. It was constituted under IWAI Act-1985 by the Parliament of India.[1] Its headquarters is located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
India has an extensive network of inland waterways in the form of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks. The total navigable length is 14,500 km, out of which about 5200 km of the river and 4000 km of canals can be used by mechanised crafts. Freight transportation by waterways is highly under-utilised in India compared to other large countries and geographic areas like the United States, China and the European Union. The total cargo moved (in tonne kilometres) by the inland waterway was just 0.1% of the total inland traffic in India, compared to the 21% figure for the United States. Cargo transportation in an organised manner is confined to a few waterways in Goa, West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala.
It does the function of building the necessary infrastructure in these waterways, surveying the economic feasibility of new projects and also administration. On 31 August 2018, IWAI made 13 standardised state-of-art design public for the transportation of cargo and passengers keeping in mind Ganges complex river morphology, hydraulics, acute bends, currents etc. in National Waterway 1. The first implementation will be between Varanasi-Haldia stretch in assistance and investment from the World Bank.
- ^ http://iwai.nic.in/showfile.php?lid=882[permanent dead link] See section 3 of the act