BHUBANESWAR: Administrative apathy has delayed construction of the ambitious National Waterway 5 (NW 5) that would connect the coal-belt of Talcher with Dhamra and Paradip ports besides facilitating transportation and tourism.
Divided into three phases, the 588 km waterway, one of the six National Waterways in the country, was to link Brahmani, Kharsua, Kani, Dhamra and Matei rivers besides the Mahanadi delta region and east coast canal providing a cost-effective alternative route for transportation of bulk cargo.
However, there is no progress in the phase-I work for the last three years as the MoU signed between Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Paradip Port Trust (PPT), Dhamra port and the State government expired in June 2018. The agreement was signed on June 30, 2014 for the development of around 212 km of NW 5 and was targeted to be completed by 2021.
Sources said while the work was hampered due to delay in land acquisition followed by the Covid pandemic, apart from shifting of power lines, mathematical model study, and readying designs, the project has not witnessed any tangible progress.
In phase I, a link was to be established between the 67 km stretch from Mangalgadi to Paradip, 28 km from Mangalgadi to Dhamra and 117 km from Mangalgadi to Pankapal. After the completion of first phase works, the 120 km stretch from Talcher to Pankapal was to be taken up in phase II. The 39 km connectivity from Dhamra to Charbatia and 217 km from Charbatia to Geonkhali were to be undertaken in the last phase.
As part of the project, important terminals are to be constructed at Talcher, Jenapur, Dhamra, Paradip, Balasore, Nasirabad, and Geonkhali for transportation of an estimated 11 million tonnes of cargo per year which can go up to 23 million tonnes in the next one decade.
Attributing the delay to the pandemic, a senior official of the Water Resources Department said the process has begun to renew the MoU, early resolution of private Patta land issues and vetting of DPRs for the reconstruction of bridges. “There are three interventions on the Brahmani system, which has a sharp river regime stretch. It has been decided to construct in-stream storage structures (ISS) on a mission mode."
The ISS at Jokadia will have provisions for the movement of barges. Two structures at Jokadia and Jenapur have been scheduled for grounding during the next one year and the third one at Khalpal between Pankapal and Talcher has been scheduled for grounding this year,” he informed.
Initially estimated to cost around Rs 4,209 crore, including Rs 1,843 crore for construction of barrages in rivers and Rs 1,273 crore for dredging of canals, the NW 5 now has been incorporated under the Prime Minister Gati Shakti programme.
