Things are falling in place for the much-hyped inland waterways project National Waterway 4 from Kakinada to Puducherry. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is planning to conduct a trial run in December this year. It has asked the State Government to conduct a delineation survey all along the Buckhingam Canal to ascertain government lands, private properties and other obstructions, if any.
Accordingly, the State Government has invited tenders. The successful bidder has to complete the survey in three months. Once the survey report is ready, a trial run would be conducted from Kakinada to Krishnapatnam using a 100 tonne vessel, said T.V. Prasad, the in-charge officer of IWAI in Chennai.
The existing canal network, which was built by the British, is suitable for vessels up to 100 tonnes. But the present canal network needs to be widened at several places to allow movement of vessels of 1000 tonne capacity. For this, the canal width has to be expanded to 120 m (60 m from the centre of the canal on either side) and the bottom width of the canal (that is, the underwater bed of the canal) to be 42 m. Then there should a 5 m road along the canal for movement of vehicles.
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The existing canal width is not uniform. At locations like Pedaganjam it is just 6 m. In Vijayawada it is 59 m at some points.
Once the delineation survey is done, officials would be in a position to estimate the land to be acquired, the challenges of widening the canal, etc, explained Mr. Prasad, who participated in a pre-bid meeting with bidders.
The Central Government will fund the State Government to acquire land and other expenditure. Once the land is acquired, IWAI will prepare the estimates and identify locations for construction of bridges, terminals and other facilities.
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The entire project is estimated to cost Rs. 3,200 crore. The operational cost is likely to be Rs 1 per km.