Preliminary work has now begun on the development of a 1,620 km waterway on River Ganga between Haldia in West Bengal and Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, touching important cities like Kolkata and Varanasi. The World Bank is likely to support the project with an initial assistance of US $ 50 million.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India, which is implementing the project, has estimated the cost at Rs 4,200 crores. The project, which is labelled as >National Waterway 1, will pass through four states, touching eight major cities and their industrial hinterlands.

A three-member project management unit, which will initiate institutional arrangements for preparation and pre-appraisal activities, has already been set up for implementing the waterway.

This would be called National Waterways 1 and IWAI has plans to implement five more such waterways.