Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is making plans to use inland waterways for the construction of the capital Amaravati. It is estimated that water transport is very suitable for transporting various raw materials such as cement, sand, iron, gravel, fly ash to the capital area at a low cost.
In this context, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is planning to use the Inland Waterways Transport-4 project previously undertaken in the Krishna River. Compared to the cost of road transport, the cost of water transport is only half. For example, while it costs Rs.2.50 to transport a ton of goods by road for a kilometer, it costs only Rs.1.36 by rail and Rs.1.06 in water transport.
With this, the central government is also giving priority to water transport and developing water transport routes across the country under the name of Sagarmala. With the construction work of the capital Amaravati set to gain momentum in the next few days, discussions have started on the easy movement of construction materials and other raw materials.
All the materials like cement, bricks and gravel required for the construction work of the Amaravati capital will have to be transported from the surrounding areas of Muktyala near Jaggayyapet in NTR district. Transporting raw materials by water using the Krishna river route between Muktyala and Amaravati is considered to be better than the road route.
The government is of the opinion that the cost of transportation will be significantly reduced due to the shorter distance on the river route. The government is considering using cargo vessels for water transport. In November 2008, the central government announced the National Water Transport-4, applying to the regions of Andhra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
At that time, in 2016, Rs. 96 crore was sanctioned for the development of an 82 km waterway from Muktyala to Vijayawada on the Krishna River. Mainly, dredging works should be carried out on the river route of about 50 meters in length and two meters in depth to enable the passage of cargo ships or cruise ships.
For this, first, a 29-km stretch from Muktyala to Chamarru in Achampet mandal of Guntur district was dredged at a cost of Rs. 33.85 crore, and another 37-km stretch from Chamarru to Harishchandrapuram in Thullur mandal of Guntur district was dredged at a cost of Rs. 35.91 crore in April 2016. It took a year and a half to complete the tender process and start the work.
The work started on October 3, 2017. The dredging work was to be completed by June 2019. However, the work was disrupted due to hard rocks hitting the riverbed at some places and some people filing cases in the National Green Tribunal. Although the dredging work was completed up to 70 percent, no progress was made after that.
In relation to water transport, dredged areas should also be maintained frequently. IWAI has not taken care of the maintenance. Recently, due to the heavy flood of 11.5 lakh cusecs in the Krishna River, there is a concern that the dredging taluk leads may be filled with sand dunes again.
In the context of the Amaravati construction work, the state government is moving ahead to coordinate with the IWAI again and develop the river waterway so that cargo vessels can ply between Muktyala and Harishchandrapuram, which will greatly reduce the transportation costs.
