Centre plans 'Eastern Grid' to aid interstate, international water transport

The Centre is planning to develop "Eastern Grid," a 5,000km-long waterway to boost connectivity and trade between eastern Indian states and BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) nations and amplify trade potential with several other Southeast Asian nations as well.

This will also include the 3,500km-long waterways comprising National Waterways-1 (The Ganga), NW-2 (the Brahmaputra) and NW16 (the Barak).

The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal announced this during the Second Inland Waterways Summit organised by PHDCCI, an industry chamber, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"Given the rich interweb of rivers in eastern India, which comprises four key waterways along with certain international routes, we intend to develop this huge potential of 5,000 kms of navigable waterways through this grid. The development of this grid will not only boost regional integration and accelerate development but it will further deepen eastern India’s trade within BBIN countries. It will also further amplify trade potential with countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. We want to explore this immense potential of trade for the economic progress and development of the eastern part of India,” Sonowal, who hails from Assam, said.

The summit was organised with the theme of “tapping into the power of Inland Waterways: promoting growth, trade and prosperity.”

"With the seamless connection between NW-1(Ganga), NW-2(Brahmaputra) and NW-16(Barak), the government is keen to create opportunities via an economic corridor of 3500 kms connecting Northeast India with the rest of India, via Bangladesh. This will also link Bhutan and Nepal with Bangladesh onto the international trade routes through multi-modal connections developed in India. As India develops Sittwe port in Myanmar, the regional economic integration, cooperation and amplification can smoothly happen among BBIN - BIMSTEC-ASEAN countries," Sonowal said.

Sonowal further said the Eastern Grid can unlock a multilateral trade potential of $49 billion dollars as the government is committed to accelerating growth in eastern India.

Sonowal stated that his ministry is working on deeper and longer network integration of inland waterways in the region to provide a future-ready mode of movement, which is economical, sustainable and efficient. "More than 600 million people from this area will benefit from this project as it is likely to propel the new engine of growth in Northeast India, for economic development, market access and employment generation in the region.”

This grid will realise the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji to make Northeast India the country's new engine of growth. This region is one of the least integrated regions in the world and the government intends to turn it around by working to resolve with all stakeholders to simplify tariff and non-tariff barriers, transit regulation, interoperability of vehicle fleets and many such technical limitations. Beyond the economic advantage, the grid also gives the region the strategic advantage of access to international trade routes as well as climate resilience for an environment-friendly transport mode - powered by green hydrogen, electricity, LNG and others," Sonowal said.