Varanasi, November 4: As part of the Jal Marg Vikas Project covering the inland waterway route from Varanasi to Haldia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the first commercial inter-model terminal route on river Ganga on November 12.

A shipment has already been dispatched by Pepsico, the international cola giant, from Haldia port in West Bengal. The shipment, carrying over 2,000 tonnes of beverage, would be received in Varanasi by PM Modi at the inauguration event. PepsiCo Moving 16 Containers on Inland Vessel Over River Ganga: Nitin Gadkari.

Ganga river was classified as National Waterway-1 by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) in 2016. Over the last 2 years, the Ministry of Waterways and Shipping has been working towards converting the Ganga-Haldia route into a busy shipment corridor. The project, costing Rs 5,369 crore, is partly financed by the World Bank.

The internodal terminal, Ramnagar, in Varanasi, was built at a cost of Rs 170 crore. The port will be equipped to handle on 1.2 MMTPA on completion of phase-I of Ganga-Haldia project. The terminal will include facilities of parking, storage, transit shed, floating jetty and berthing space for two vessels.

As part of the project, the IWAI is also developing secure river navigation systems, night navigation facilities, modern river information system and strengthening the indigenous digital global positioning system or DGPS.

According to Union Minister for Shipping and Waterways Nitin Gadkari, the completion of both phases of the project would end up increasing the cargo traffic on river Ganga to 21.89 million tonnes. This in turn would drive the economic growth of states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, he said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 04, 2018 04:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).