Maruti sees opportunity in inland waterways

Inland waterways continue to remain an underutilised mode of transportation in India. Companies largely rely on roadways or railways to haul shipments across the country. Now, Maruti Suzuki is planning to transport cars produced at its plants in Gurgaon and Manesar to Kolkata through rivers. Currently, the country’s largest automaker sends its cars to Kolkata by road. The project will be carried out on a pilot basis this month, in order to gauge the plan's long-term commercial feasibility, according to the report by Business Line. Trial runs will begin soon with the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) expected to deploy two barges with a capacity of around 30 small cars for the test sessions. Sources say the company will have the cars brought down by road for a distance of around 800 kms to Varanasi, before they make the trip to Kolkata by river. However, even if the tests go through successfully, full-fledged commercial operations can only begin once the IWAI constructs multi-modal terminals with permanent roll-in / roll-out facilities, as the pilot project will use a temporary arrangement. Additionally, IWAI barges are not designed to carry automobiles and customised vessels with a higher carrying capacity will be required for commercial viability. Maruti’s pilot project is indicative of corporate India’s interest in the development of India’s inland waterways, which has gained impetus since the country’s biggest power producer i.e. the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) successfully implemented the coal transportation project. Through inland waterways, the organisation transports coal across a distance of around 545 kms from the Sagar Islands in West Bengal to the Farakka thermal power plant. The benefits of the experiment have made the NTPC consider a similar plan for two other plants.