Inland Water Transport
Inland Water Transport
Inland Water Transport
This paper deals with the study of inland waterway transport system. It aims at bringing to fore the
true, but underutilized potential of inland water way transport. In addition to describing the
potential of IWT, the various factors to be kept in mind while setting up an IWT system are also
described. The paper also describes the case of IWT in Europe .
Key words : Inland water transport, Transport economics, Transport policy
1.0 INTRODUCTION
A countrys ability to transport is equivalent to its ability to prosper: most national
development plans recognize the strategic role of transport in providing the inter-sectoral
linkages of the economy.
Inland water transport (IWT) has been utilized throughout history on the rivers of
the world. The practice came about in the first instance due to lack of acceptable overland
alternatives. In the days of the past, before the advent of steam engine and automobiles
thereafter, IWT was the major means of transporting goods and people from one
commercial/urban center to the other. Since water transport has often been the only viable
means of transport for centuries, many big cities are located on the banks of rivers or
estuaries. There are places where this feature is still put to full use: in China, the Yangtze
is still the main artery of trade in and out of the nine provinces and two municipalities. The
fate of Shanghai, Kolkata, Bangkok, New Orleans or Rotterdam would have been very
different had they not been endowed with a riverine hinterland. Even the birth and
development of Paris was much linked to river transport.
This significance of IWT has been overshadowed by mans unquenchable
thirst for better means of transport, while ignoring and categorizing traditional means as
outdated and unprofitable. The truth is that even though we are past the period when
Under Graduate student, Department Of Civil Engineering, N.S.S College of Engineering.
Palakkad- 08 , Kerala
we were using wheel barrows for transporting goods, there are several orthodox
transportation means such as IWT which will still enable us to satisfactorily meet our
transportation requirements.
Demand
An efficient infrastructure
Implementation of plans.
Champakara canal (14 kms) and Udyogmandal canal (23 kms) in February, 1993
as National Waterway 3. (Fig No : 3)
Developmental activities for improvement and maintenance of fairway, providing
terminals, navigational aids etc. are being taken up on all the three National Waterways by
Inland Waterways Authority of India.
Fig No : 1
National Waterway No: 1
Fig No: 2
National Waterway No: 2
Fig No: 3
National Waterway No : 3
climatic change, noise pollution, congestion, effects on the countryside and the urban
environment revealed that road transport accounted for 91.5 % of the costs, air transport
for 6 %, rail transport for 2 %, but inland navigation a tiny 0.5 %. Together with its low
fuel consumption, this makes inland waterway transport one of the most sustainable forms
of transport. Emissions in particular are dropping even further as newer vessels are
introduced with more efficient engines. As a result, emissions caused by inland waterways
have dropped by a quarter over the past 20 years. In this context, the carbon dioxide
emission forecasts for the inland navigation sector could well meet, and probably even
exceed, the Kyoto targets.
5.3 Iwt Is Not Slow And Delivers Cargo Just-In-Time
Multimodal transport requires delivery on scheduled time. International goods
orders are sometimes placed months in advance, and a break in the supply chain could be
disastrous. Thus it is essential that every mode delivers at its own pace on time. IWT is
able to do that with the advantage that it meets no congestion. Its combination of speed
and reliability is at par with other inland modes.
A stronger presence of IWT will bring benefits to the industry, which will get a
better service; consumers, who may get a cheaper product; railways, which will eventually
achieve much needed improvements under the pressure of IWT competition; and road,
which is likely to see an increase in traffic linked to IWT intermodalism. A strong
advantage of IWT is that is congestion-free. Multimodal supply chains require delivery on
scheduled time according to the just-in-time (JIT) concept, rather than rapid delivery.
Many supply chains incorporate a sea voyage in their organization. Then, global delivery
time ranges in weeks rather than days, and adding one day more using IWT on the inland
transport side would not have a negative impact. Also, thanks to its reliability, it provides
the consignee with a guaranteed estimated time of arrival (ETA), while road transport may
miss its ETA due to traffic congestion either on roads or at terminal gates, or due to time
restrictions on the use of trucks.
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which railway rates are high, and this is where IWT can compete with both the railways
and roads on quality of service and on cost.
Of course, a strong flow of bulk trade on a waterway network is not detrimental to
IWT, but there may be other ways to run a profitable trade. In Asia, it may sometimes be
difficult for IWT to obtain much bulk traffic on a purely "tariff" approach, while it may
win in quality of service: a reduction of pilferage and losses, by 2 per cent as documented
in a number of cases, will go a long way to put IWT on a competitive footing with other
modes. Multimodal transport, which better protects goods, including manufactured goods,
in its ITUs, may be a solution, and on this type of traffic IWT has a strong role to play.
Container transport is very well suited to shallow rivers with its high volume/weight ratio
and a full complement of containers could transit towards land-locked
countries on ultra-shallow barges not deeper than country boats.
5.6
analysis. However, the development of the Tennessee, the Rhone, the upper Rhine and the
Volga are proof that excellent results can be achieved at low cost for the countries
involved, by the simultaneous development of a river for power, flood control, navigation,
irrigation, industrial/urban uses, beautification and recreation.
Such multipurpose developments are also catching up in developing countries,
such as the Damodar in India and gigantic works like Itaipu at the Brazilian-Paraguayan
border, the Rio So Francisco in Brazil, Gezhouba and the Three Gorges in China.
With increased energy costs, small watercourses with low head turbines are becoming
quite profitable and a number of projects are planned, particularly in China on the
tributaries of the Yangtze.
5.7 Iwt Is Intermodal And Multimodal In Essence
The combination of modes originated to help passenger movement overland, and
the ferrying function remains even today and extends to road and sometimes rail transport.
Once people ventured farther from their birthplaces, they started to trade and often did half
of the trip on rivers, but this nascent IWT had to be supplemented by other modes on the
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route. IWT was really created with the use of sails to go upstream and downstream, but the
complementarity with other modes was never challenged. In the sixteenth century in
Europe, horse-drawn coaches were carried over hundreds of kilometres on flat-top barges
to avoid the rough and insufficient road network, a fully multimodal combination.
Intermodalism emerged with the development of railways, when the latter needed to
bridge gaps in their network.
This was the case during the nineteenth century in Pakistan, where the Indus
flotilla carried the goods over a long distance to link the two isolated railway networks.
Once the overland connection was established, the flotilla was disbanded. During that
period, by locating most of their stations away from the waterway front, the victorious
railways disrupted the usual interface. A form of "one-modalism" was established, where
railways were buying canals and IWT companies to let serve only the trade that they
themselves could not profitably carry. At that time road transport was not a serious
competitor over long distances.
When trucks started to prosper, intermodalism regained popularity and a number of
railway lines were closed and replaced by road services. At the same time a buoyant IWT
truly practiced intermodalism, at least at one end, but interfacing with either sea or road
transport, while most inland ports also had rail connections.
Today, this intermodal network enables IWT to play its part in the multimodal system
and to use containers and Ro-Ro techniques. Being location specific, a majority of its
traffic needs to use another mode. By this intermodalism, IWT brings more traffic to other
modes of transport rather than competing with them. Also, with proper planning of
terminals and adequate siting of new industries, its role in the intermodal competition in
Asia can be tremendous.
5.8 Iwt Is Flexible Enough To Accommodate Vessels Irrespective Of
Their Sizes Such That The Best Alternative Can Be Adopted For
Increased Profits.
It is true that in accordance with the law of escalating returns, bigger vessels have a
cheaper unit price.
It is also true that the existing small vessels are contrary to the general tendency of
concentration, and with the ensuing increase in size of the consignments of bulks they are
at risk of being chased out of the market. This concentration move exists throughout the
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industrial chain: a company which needed one 20-tonne truck per day twenty years ago
may need five today. This means a 300-tonne barge satisfies three days of its needs, with
free storage during its voyage, and fits very well in a supply chain, provided the plant is
not too far away from the waterway.
There is a growing trade in highly specialized bulks, usually half-products or
semitransformed bulks, shuttling between big seaboard plants to the factories where the
final transformation takes place. This is done in medium quantities, and is ideally suited to
the medium size fleet, which has found a very dynamic niche market. This can be true in
every country of the world, should this opportunity be known, and should IWT be
adequately marketed. The flexibility of the transportation process means that the customer
has the freedom to choose the means that best suits his requirements.
One of the strategies to develop a sound transport sector has been to invite
private sector financing.
Ports in particular have seen a sizeable growth of BOT or BOO projects.
The
development of international trade and multimodal transport has seen the
emergence of a number of big operators. IWT could benefit from this
trend and its development could also be supported by private sector
involvement in container transport out of the ports, possibly in shuttle
traffic between an inland port and a seaport controlled by the same
interests.
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Governments could also collect taxes for the use of facilities which can be used
both for IWT and for various other purposes. The taxes thus collected can be
used for improving IWT facilities and for establishing healthy relationships
between various modes of transport.
Countries may also consider the polluter pay approach as adopted by some
European countries. Use of roads, in particular for long-distance transportation,
causes air pollution and users are obliged to provide compensation so as to
contribute to other less polluted modes of transport, such as inland waterways
and railways. The funds thus raised are used to improve inland waterways and
railways to reduce overall air pollution produced by all the modes of transport.
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Finance or subsidize operating costs of IWT container services on the grounds that
they are less harmful to the environment and incur five times less external cost to the
community for each container carried.
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Despite the availability of this dense and flexible network, there is still a massive
amount of capacity on the waterways that is not being exploited. Freight transport by
inland waterways accounts for 7 % of total inland transport 125 000 million tonnekilometres in 2000 whereas road and rail carry 74 % and 14 % respectively. (Bearing in
mind that only half of the EU Member States have interconnected navigable inland
waterways). In some regions and the hinterland of seaports, such as Benelux and northern
France, modal shareof inland waterway transport is much higher and can reach up to 43
% (in terms of tonne-kilometres).
10.0 CONCLUSION
The waterways industry, with its spare network capacity and modern fleet, is
immediately available to use and can offer cheap, reliable and sustainable transport
to thousands of businesses across the world. Inland waterway transport is ready to play a
key role in shifting traffic off roads. By removing key physical, technological or
bureaucratic bottlenecks, inland waterway transport will become even more effective,
offering a quality service to freight forwarders in terms of price and reliability against
which other land modes cannot easily compete. In addition, the use of inland waterways
will actually contribute to the improvement of the environment due to its cleanliness and
efficiency. The capacity and opportunities are there for the shipping industry and freight
forwarders to realise. Taking steps towards them are all that is required to win new
business for inland waterway transport.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my teachers P. Asha Varma, M.Tech,
Dr. A. K. Raji, M.Tech Ph.D, A. V. Hema Nalini M.Tech for guiding me to achieve my
goal of completing this seminar report.
REFERENCES
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2. Hugh, Inland Waterway transport, a transport solution that works, Report published by
the Director General of energy and transport, European commission on December 2002
3. Jiles.D, Manual on modernization of inland water transport for integration within a
multimodal transport system
4.Matti Arpiainen, Magnus Backstrom, Pekka Salmi, Winter transportation possibilities
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5. Report of NTPC May 1980- pp 283 - 305
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