IWAI partners with Rhenus Group to enhance inland waterways transport, aiming for efficient cargo movement and global best practices.
The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the nodal agency for National Waterways – under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) – on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the global logistics major Rhenus Group, with the latter commencing scheduled barge operations across key National Waterways of the country.
As part of MoU, Rhenus will introduce 100 barges in a phase-wise manner in the national waterways. Around 20 barges and 6 pushers are to be deployed in the first phase, targeting the movement of more than one million tonnes of cargo annually by the end of 2025.
Inland Waterways Transport solutions and scheduled barge services will also be introduced.
According to Sarbnanda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the country’s inland waterways offer an opportunity to create a greener, cost-effective and efficient logistics network.
Leveraging Rhenus expertise in European inland navigation and a global fleet of over 1,100 barges, the partnership aims to integrate global best practices into the Indian IWT ecosystem.
A combination of pushers and barges to suit the low draft navigation will be used to transport both bulk and break bulk cargo.
“The Ministry is working on implementing the framework of the Maritime India Vision 2030. Today, with this MoU will empower (the waterways) with global expertise and revamp its efficacy as the preferred mode of bulk cargo movement in the country,” he said.
At the onset, Rhenus will operate on National Waterways 1 (Ganga), National Waterways 2 (Brahmaputra), and National Waterways 16 (Barak), as well as the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route. These operations will facilitate the movement of bulk and break-bulk cargo across North, East, and Northeast India, with gradual expansion to other NWs.
Incidentally, under the Jal Marg Vikas project, the IWAI is undertaking end-to-end maintenance dredging, building IWT terminals and navigational locks, setting up community jetties and providing navigational aids all along the waterway for smooth and efficient passenger and cargo movement.
Operational National Waterways has grown from three in 2014-15 to 24 by 2023-24; and the MoPSW plans to take it up to 29 by 2024-25.
Cargo movement has surged from 30 million tonne per annum (mtpa) in 2014-15 to 133 mtpa by FY24.
Published on May 6, 2025
IWAI partners with Rhenus Group to enhance inland waterways transport, aiming for efficient cargo movement and global best practices.
The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the nodal agency for National Waterways – under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) – on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the global logistics major Rhenus Group, with the latter commencing scheduled barge operations across key National Waterways of the country.
As part of MoU, Rhenus will introduce 100 barges in a phase-wise manner in the national waterways. Around 20 barges and 6 pushers are to be deployed in the first phase, targeting the movement of more than one million tonnes of cargo annually by the end of 2025.
Inland Waterways Transport solutions and scheduled barge services will also be introduced.
According to Sarbnanda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, the country’s inland waterways offer an opportunity to create a greener, cost-effective and efficient logistics network.
Leveraging Rhenus expertise in European inland navigation and a global fleet of over 1,100 barges, the partnership aims to integrate global best practices into the Indian IWT ecosystem.
A combination of pushers and barges to suit the low draft navigation will be used to transport both bulk and break bulk cargo.
“The Ministry is working on implementing the framework of the Maritime India Vision 2030. Today, with this MoU will empower (the waterways) with global expertise and revamp its efficacy as the preferred mode of bulk cargo movement in the country,” he said.
At the onset, Rhenus will operate on National Waterways 1 (Ganga), National Waterways 2 (Brahmaputra), and National Waterways 16 (Barak), as well as the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route. These operations will facilitate the movement of bulk and break-bulk cargo across North, East, and Northeast India, with gradual expansion to other NWs.
Incidentally, under the Jal Marg Vikas project, the IWAI is undertaking end-to-end maintenance dredging, building IWT terminals and navigational locks, setting up community jetties and providing navigational aids all along the waterway for smooth and efficient passenger and cargo movement.
Operational National Waterways has grown from three in 2014-15 to 24 by 2023-24; and the MoPSW plans to take it up to 29 by 2024-25.
Cargo movement has surged from 30 million tonne per annum (mtpa) in 2014-15 to 133 mtpa by FY24.
Published on May 6, 2025
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The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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