Varanasi waterways port: No land in sight, project to miss December deadline, blame game on

“We only have five-and-a-half hectares of land while another 30 hectares is needed. A committee has been formed to interact with the farmers regarding the land. It will take time,” said A K Mishra.

Uttar Pradesh’s only waterways port in Varanasi is likely to miss the December deadline due to the unavailability of land. Officials of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), a body under the Union Ministry of Shipping, have put the blame on the Akhilesh Yadav government, saying the department did not receive the required assistance in acquiring 30 hectares of land to set up the port.

“We only have five-and-a-half hectares of land while another 30 hectares is needed. A committee has been formed to interact with the farmers regarding the land. It will take time,” said A K Mishra, Assistant Director, IWAI.

Mishra was critical of the lack of support from the UP government, which, he said, hasn’t shown much interest after extending initial support for the project which is among the Centre’s top priorities. The IWAI, he claimed, has written several letters to the Varanasi district administration, which is responsible for acquiring the land, but has received no response so far.

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Refuting the allegations, the Additional District Magistrate (Finance & Revenue), Mahendra Kumar Rai said that “all issues” have been settled.

“I had personally met every farmer and persuaded them (to give their land). They have agreed. Now, it is up to the Ministry of Shipping to purchase the land and complete the formalities. We have already cleared everything at our end on August 5,” Rai told The Indian Express.

The only headway in the project so far has been the setting up of the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) station, which provides location accuracy to about one metre within a radial area of 150 kilometres. The system will provide safe sailing and quick turn-around for the vessels.

The project was first conceived as a permanent terminal five years ago to better support cargo and passenger vessels with 1.5 to 2 meter draft. Small cruise vessels are already plying in Rajmahal, and had completed the first voyage in August last year.

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The Shipping Ministry aims to develop the National Waterways-1 for commercial use, and connect it with the Haldia port to ship coal consignments, which would then be loaded to cargo vessels for NW-1 for further transportation to power plants and other projected industries in towns situated on the banks of Ganga.

While the Shipping Ministry waits for the land to complete the project, the sailing of vessels on the 7-km stretch, which was previously marked as “tortoise sanctuary and abode of dolphins”, can go on smoothly after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest gave the necessary clearance with some conditions, ministry sources informed.

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