Kochi: The state government is planning to rope in private investors to make downstream investment on the inland waterway from Kasaragod to Kovalam which it is making fully navigable.
“The state government has already invested about Rs 450 crore and another Rs 150 crore is being invested now to make the stretch fully navigable,” Dr V K Baby, special secretary, Department of Coastal Shipping and Inland Navigation, said here on Friday. Delivering a special address at the third edition of coastal shipping and IWT Business Forum here, Dr Baby said the government is now planning to rope in the private sector to develop additional infrastructure along the route.
“We need to develop tourism as well as trade and business centres on the route and ensure facilities for seamless movement of cargo,” he said. “For this, we need private investment.”
The government will offer a policy package for an enabling environment and level playing ground to facilitate private investment for the project, he said.
The state has about 1,548 km potentially navigable waterways— 840 km of rivers and 708 km of canals. Of the 595 km Kovalam-Neeleswaram west coast waterway, 205 km on NW-3, 23.7 km Kovalam- Kollam km stretch and 195 km of the 348 km Kottappuram-Neeleswaram stretch are navigable now.
“The government is now working on making the rest of the stretch also navigable,” he said. It will be a phased approach to develop the west coast canal and feeder canals navigable, he said.
“The government is open to private-public partnerships, build-own-operate-transfer and build-operate-transfer modes to implement the project,” he said. “It can also tap national and international funds dedicated for infrastructure development.”
A Sakthivel, regional president of Federation of Indian Exporter Organisations, delivering the key note address, said coastal shipping must be a national priority as moving cargo on the coastal shipping route can bring down the cost by half compared with road transport. Former Union shipping secretary K Mohandas presided.
