Shipping Ministry launches first bulk movement of coal through national waterways

Chennai:

The large-scale commercial navigation on India’s national waterways began with the flagging off coal barges of 2100 DWT from Garden Reach Jetty 2 of Inland Waterways Authority of India at Kolkata.

Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan flagged off the coal barges, the first such movement of bulk coal on national Waterway-1 (The Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River system) by inland vessels from Sandheads in Bay of Bengal to Farakka Thermal Power Plant of National Thermal Power Corporation in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.

Shipping Ministry said in a release that with additional supply of coal through inland waterways, an eco-friendly, economical and fuel efficient mode of transport, will augment coal supply to NTPC power plant at Farakka enabling increased power generation.

Kolkata being a transportation hub on the Ganga serve Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and North-Eastern region.

The coal movement has commenced under a tripartite agreement signed between Inland Waterways Authority of India, NTPC ltd and Jindal ITF ltd, Jindal ITF has invested avout rs 500 crore for transhipper at Sandheads, coal carrying barges, inland water terminal at Farakka with state-of-art coal unloading cranes and conveyer system.