The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a $375 million loan agreement to support India develop its first modern inland water transport fairway on the Ganga river between Varanasi and the seaport of Haldia. The 1,360 km-stretch of the waterway will bring thousands of jobs in cargo logistics and transportation to one of the most populous regions in the country.

The Project will help the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) put in place state-of-the-art infrastructure and navigation services needed to develop the waterway -- known as National Waterway 1 -- as an efficient logistics artery for northern India, while adopting the least intrusive methods of making the river navigable.  The Capacity Augmentation of National Waterway 1 (Jal Marg Vikas) Project will help save more than 150,000 tons of CO2 equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions annually by moving cargo away from fossil fuel-consuming road and rail networks.

The agreement for the Project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; Pravir Pandey, Vice Chairman and Project Director, on behalf of Inland Waterways Authority of India; and Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank.

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