The World Bank has approved a loan of around Rs 2,421 crore for the ambitious inland waterways project between Haldia in West Bengal and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
An official statement said in New Delhi today that the approved loan amount is about 45 per cent of the estimated project cost of Rs 5,369 crore for capacity augmentation of National Waterway-1 (NW-1 of River Ganga under the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP).
The 1,390 kilometre waterway project of the shipping ministry would enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1,500-2,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT).
NW-1 will have three multi-modal terminals, one each at Varanasi, Sahibganj (Jharkhand), and Haldia.
The project will enable the Inland Waterways Authority of India to set-up River Information Service System on NW -1 for the first time in India.
