National Waterways Project Gains Momentum - New Terminal Coming Up In Jharkhand

Waterways set to take off big time with a contract sealed for the construction of a multi-modal terminal project at Sahibganj in Jharkhand.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) has bagged the award from Inland Waterways Authority of India to build the terminal, which will have a cargo handling capacity of 2.28 million tonnes per annum.

It will feature a stockyard, terminal buildings, parking area, berthing space for two vessels and shore protection works among others.

The terminal, which is part of the Rs4,200-crore Jal Marg Vikas project to develop National Waterway-1 on the Ganga river, will be followed by the construction of the Varanasi and the Haldia terminals.

Developed with technical and financial assistance from the World Bank, the first phase of Jal Marg Vikas is set to be completed by 2019.

The hub, which will capitalise on Jharkhand’s 80 billion tonnes of coal reserves, will bring down the logistics cost by 6 per cent from 18 per cent. This is expected to lead to large-scale export from Sahibganj to Bengal, northeast and Bangladesh, with the potential to get extended to Myanmar.

The Jal Marg Vikas will enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes on the river.

Construction of the Varanasi terminal was awarded to AFCONS Infrastructure Ltd in May.