IWAI Seminar on Cargo movement in NW-3 at Kochi

An informative and interesting seminar that saw participation from all the stakeholders - regulatory bodies (IRS, Irrigation Department, Kerala State Shipping & Inland Navigation Corporation), ship owners (LOTS, Kerala Backwaters,...), shipbuilders (Master Shipyard,KSINC,...), Ship designers (Navgathi,...), Hospitality sector (CGH, Muthoot Resorts...), Financial institutions, Oil major, and other related bodies.

The chief guest of the event was Sri. K. Mohandas, Secretary Shipping (Govt. of India). The event kicked off with an introduction to IWAI and the scope of event by Sri. S.P. Gaur, Chairman IWAI. Sri. M.N. Gunavardhanan, Secretary Water resources and Inland Navigation (Govt. of Kerala). in his address sought central assistance in new projects in inland water development, declaration of NW-3 extension to Kovalam in south and if possible to Kolachal and to Nileswaram in North so that the present 213 Km can be increased to 423 Km.

As a response to this request by the Kerala secretary, Sri. K. Mohandas, very diplomatically suggested Kerala government to focus on executing the sanctioned projects and prevent the 180 crores funds from being lapsed the financial year. He added one interesting snippet. With the commissioning of Vallarpadom ICTT (International Container Transshipment Terminal) project upto 3 million TEU is expected to be handled per year. Of this if we assume 50% is taken by railways (an overestimation), if we consider the remaining 1.5 million on the roads that would mean 6 TEU per minute. This is unprecedented and it would mean that inland waters have to share this burden (or opportunity!).

Morning Session

The first presentation was by Sri. Pradeep Kumar, Member (Finance) IWAI. He traced the history of inland waterway no.3 rules to the act in parliament on 8th Aug, 1992 and with effect from 1st Feb, 1993. He observed that the lowest air draft level was in the Kaniyampuzha rail bridge at 4.2 m and a breadth limitation of 9m. He pointed out that despite being operational for the past 18 yrs, currently 0.76 M-T cargo is only transported through NW-3. This, though, is projected to grow to 7 M-T in 2020. IWAI recommends 350 T cargo vessel with 50 m x 8.5 m dimensions and 1.8 m draught with a speed of 10 km/hr. He brought out some of the issues that stands in way of NW-3 development:

• fishing nets / stakes from fairway to be removed
• no sites for dumping dredged material
• bank protection work undertaken by Irrigation department is delayed
• land acquisition problem in Alapuzha terminal

The next presentation was by Sri. UnniKrishnan, Joint Director SEZ, whose talk was titled, "Inland water connectivity to Vallarpadam ICTT". He tried to highlight the strategic importance of having a transshipment port as well as the commercial benefit (about UD$ 200 per TEU) for the exporters. He highlighted the cost savings for the shippers who use water transportation to bring containers to ICTT instead of the roads. He also impressed upon the PuthuVypeen SEZ.

Sri. Wilson Jacob, Chairman of Kottayam Port talked about the opportunities offered by the new port (commissioned yet not in use) - the first river-port with public-private partnership. He has some suggestions for improvement:

• improve and develop the feeder canals to the areas where trade houses are present
• the kadoor river that connects to Kottayam need to be maintained
• suggest facility to directly transfer cargo from barge to vessel in ICTT instead of going to the Bolgatty Palace IWAI jetty and then to ICTT by road.
• improve the height of bridges (now 6.5 m) and width (now 12.5 m) of lock gate at Thannermukkam to allow for larger vessels.

The next presentation was by Sri. Mohan Kumar of Govt. of Kerala who talked on "Development of IWT in Kerala". He brought some interesting statistics like the total length of feeder canal is 1097 km. He tried to impress upon the IWAI and central govt. on the additional canals that need to be developed: Vadakara - Mahe (17.61 km), Mahe - Thalassery (10.15 km), Thalasseri - Anjarakkanidi (3.47 km) and Anjarakkanidi - Kattampally (16.8 km) a total of 48.03 km. Continuing to what Sr. M. N. Gunadardhanan said on the west coast canal extension from Kovalam to Kolachal, he added the historical significance of this AVM (Anantha Victoria Marthandam) canal to the kings of Travancore and sought 282 crore for the 42 km extension.

A. Rajesh from Choice Shipping, as a representative of operator gave the talk on integration of EXIM trade to the inland waters. He highlighted the design constraints for a ship in inland waters in the form of - air draught, water draught, discharging capacity anywhere (use landing craft concept), bund constraints, labor use in loading points. He informed the audience that Choice was working on some interesting designs with naval architects to bring out innovative solutions.

John Mathews from LOTS was the last speaker in this session. He brought out the plight of NW-3 though a good metaphor comparing it to having "all qualities of a good groom but without any takers". He pointed out that 99% of the cargo movement in NW-3 was in the Champakara and Udyogmandal canal with FACT, Binani Zinc as major customers. He had some suggestions to improve the scene in NW-3

• IOCL, BPCL, HPCL have tankage facility, but none has barge facility except BPCL.
• With the new LPG terminal in Puthuvypeen, IOC will need to shift this to its Udayamperoor bottling facility, recommend use of barge.
• Revive the IVBSS Inland Vessel Building Subsidy Scheme)
• Clear the Kottapuram-Kochi of fishing nets as well as maintain the draught
• Near IREL a walway in Kovilthottam is preventing cargo movement. To remove this issue
• All dangerous cargoes like sulphuric acid, ammonia, phosphoric acid movement must be made mandatory.

The session was followed by Q&A session where some interesting information was revealed:

1. Apparently Chief Minister had convened a meeting with the state government companies and urged them to mandatorily use inland water for transportation
2. An attempt is made by Inland water to get the carbon credits for the ship owner when a cargo is shifted from road to water.
3. Apparently the IVBSS scheme was recommended to be revived by IWAI, however planning commission has rejected it.
4. As an answer to Mr. Mohan Kumar's request from Kerala State on increased funds the IWAI chairman asked them prevent the lapse of funds given.

The chairman, Sri. N. Ramachandran summed up the session with the following:

• Necessity of getting practical ideas from the private sector, who are the users of NW-3
• Clearing of bottlenecks (dredging, fishing stakes / nets) from NW-3
• State government PSUs to use IW and set example to others
• Dangerous cargo movement to be made mandatory through IW
• Oil companies to use more of IW

Afternoon Session

The first session in the afternoon was a presentation by Mr. A.H. Shabeer from Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) on the seaport-airport connectivity. He brought out some facts about CIAL - That it is the first greenfield airport in India (started on 25th May 1999), fourth busiest in India for International flights, handle 3.6 million passengers per year, 455 aircrafts per week, 28,000 MT cargo per year. CIAL plans to develop the aerotropolis with hotel, trade fair, golf course, aviation academy, museum, mall, maintenance hangar, aerospace industrial units, etc. He also introduced the proposal for the inland water connectivity and the plan to make it one of the first major port connected with airport. The connection is in three areas - Seaport to Eloor (23 km), Eloor to Kanjoor (26 km), Kanjoor to CIAL (0.5 km). The fisrt stretch is well maintained, where as second need to be worked on whereas third stretch need lots of work.

Adm. B.R.Menon, Chairman KSINC, added to the above presentation by bringing out the fact that Pathalam bund was the major obstacle in this project. There is a proposal to build a lock which might cost 6.5 crores. The Kanjoor lock is already done. Another aspect is the strengthening of the bridge across Chengalthodu when it is widened.

M. Sivasankar, Director (Tourism) Govt. of Kerala presented the potential for inland tourism. He highlighed some facts like - kerala tourism is India's only tourism superbrand; it is the fastest growing destination with 13,13o crores earnings in 2008. He observed that inland waters can become a mode for transporting tourist from one end of the state to the other.

Jose Dominic from CGH Earth gave a passionate speech on how Kerala tourism developed from the laggard days of 1980 to the magical days today. He vouched for the unique feature of Kerala that caused this growth and also sought intervention from the authorities to make the inland water free from all the issues mentioned above. He was also very positive about the Muzris project in Kodungallur. His speech was also riddled with lot of hostorical facts and stories that made the presentation one of the most interesting ones.

The chairman, Sri. Sunil Kumar summed us as:

• seaport-airport connectivity by water - funds are not issue, the modalities of executing the project are worked out.
• feeder canals are important from perspective of tourism sector more than NW-3
• Muzris project will become one of the most attractive ones in the future
• Suggest the use of terminals set up by IWAI
• If the NW-3 remains underutilized like today all the problems like nets, siltation would reappear. Suggest not to wait till it becomes perfect instead start using it and find problems so that jointly with IWAI can improve the infrastructure
• IWAI promises all possible support for the development on inland waters

All in all the seminar was pretty interesting and informative.