Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) under the Ministry of Port, Shipping and Waterways has achieved a significant achievement in freight on national waterways. For Financial Year 2024-25, IWAI has successfully made 145.5 million tonnes of cargo movement at record levels, the highest level in IWT sector so far. With this, the total number of waterways working during the year has increased from 24 to 29.
Cargo traffic raises in the last ten years
Cargo traffic on national waterways has increased from 18.10 MMT to 145.5 MMT between FY14 and FY 2025, with a CAGR of 20.86 percent. In FY 2025, traffic activity recorded an increase of 9.34 percent year-on-year compared to FY 2024. During the year, five items i.e. coal, iron ore, iron and fly ash contributed more than 68 percent to the total freight on the northwestern highways.
The increase in movement of goods on national waterways is notable. In the last few years, many active policy measures and infrastructure have been taken to smooth the movement of goods on national highways.
Work came cargo promotion scheme
The hydroelectric scheme launched in December last year promotes the model change of cargo in IWT by encouraging cargo owners and movers to a limit of 35 percent of the total actual operations on waterways traveling in the waterway trip. Scheduled cargo services on NW-1, NW-2 and NW-16 have been made functional through the Indo-Bangladesh protocol to further further this scheme. The scheme is expected to transfer 800 million tonnes of cargo to IWT mode, which is about 17 percent of the current 4,700 million tonnes of cargo on national waterways.
Increased income from digital portal
The National Waterways (Construction of Jetty/Terminals) Act, 2025 encourage private sector investment in the development of inland terminals on national waterways, making maximum use of India’s broad waterway network. Private, public and joint enterprise institutions can develop jetty/terminal across the country by obtaining a simplified no objection certificate (NOC) from IWAI through a digital portal.
Other initiatives to promote freight transportation
Fairway Development Work: Development of fairways to ensure minimum available depth and smooth shipping. End-to-end dragging contracts have been issued for various identified sections on national waterways.
Ro-Ro/Ro-Pax Services: The introduction of roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) and Ro-Pax services on various national waterways.
Digital solution: The implementation of digital solutions such as CAR-D portal and water portal for ease of business, central database for registration of ship and crew (vessel and sailor) to promote digitization, nine raiders (national river traffic and shipping system) for the safety and smooth operation of inland ships.
Apart from this, adequate waterways infrastructure including IWT terminal, night shipping facility, shipping locations on national waterways is being developed. These initiatives are expected to increase the movement of goods through national waterways, leading to a more efficient and durable way of transport.
IWAI is committed to developing the IWAI waterways as a strong engine of development, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strong leadership and port, port, ship transport and waterways minister Shri Sarbananda Sonowal. The Authority is expanding its presence across the country, and besides other waterways, is working widely towards the capacity increase of the National Waterway-1, National Waterway-2, National Waterway-3, National Waterway-16. Increase in the movement of goods on national waterways is a clear indication that steps taken by IWAI are giving positive results and this will help the IWT to make the preferred and reliable means of transport in the long run.