National Waterway 1

The National Waterway 1 or NW1 is located in India and runs from Haldia (Sagar) to Allahabad across the Ganges, Bhagirathi and Hooghly river systems. It is 1620 km long, making it the longest waterway in India, NW1 passess through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

It was declared as a waterway in October 1986. It is navigable by mechanical boat up to Patna.

The Route

The Controversy

The National Waterway 1 was landed in a controversy and protests after Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Shipping in July, 2014 announced that the government will construct barrages every 100 kilometer on river Ganga and will undertake dredging activities in identified stretch to provide a width of 45 metres and a depth of three metres to enable transport of passengers and goods between Varanasi and Hooghly on river Ganga in the first stage of its development. The initial proposal is based on a study by Danish Hydrological Institute, which prepared reports on two stretches between Allahabad and Varanasi and between Varanasi and Buxar. The plan was to provide a depth of three meters in the Ganga to make it fully navigable from Haldia to Allahabad for barges carrying 1,500-2,000 tonnes. The announcement was made after World Bank agreed to fund the initial 50 million dollars including technical support without any public consultation. The move was criticized by river actvists and professors of Banaras Hindu University.