The Punjab government will launch its first ferry service in March next year in a move aimed at utilising waterways for transportation purpose.This will be the first step towards cutting transportation cost and reducing traffic congestion on roads.The project titled ‘Inland Transportation’ by the Inland Water Transport Development Company (IWTDC) will be inaugurated in March 2016, said IWTDC Director Aamer Saleemi while talking toHe said that the project will provide cheap cargo and passenger transportation services, cut transport cost by 50% vis-à-vis road and railway mode of transportation.In the first phase, the service will start from Daudkhel to Attock.The Punjab government has set up the project at an equity of Rs200 million with authorised capital is Rs500 million. The head office is located in Rawalpindi while operational facilities are being established at Daudkhel and at three field camps along the River Indus, Saleemi added.Multinational shipping companies have shown interest to invest in the project and the bidding to select a private company to run the services will start next month, he added. The Punjab government has purchased the first ferry for this project and the rest of the ferries, river craft and ships will be the responsibility of the company that wins the project, said Saleemi.Saleemi added that unfortunately, the utilisation of river and canal system in Pakistan for transporting goods and passengers has never been seriously pursued.The Indus River Channel carried out an initial survey with the support of Pakistan Navy. A group of entrepreneurs from the private sector provided the funding to evaluate the feasibility of this channel while retired navy officers supervised the project.He said initial environmental and social impact assessment report was completed in November this year. The key objectives of the preliminary study was to determine the impact on the environment, ecosystem and social activities along the 480 kilometres (km) tract between Attock to Daudkhel, and Daudkhel to Taunsa for re-introducing a formal Indus Water transport system to carry passengers and cargo.Techno-Consultant International (TCI) of Karachi undertook this assignment.The report maintains that there are no serious environmental impacts of the project.He added that one litre of fuel can take one ton of cargo up to 180km over waterways as compared to 25km by road or 75km by rail. The saving in fuel and in foreign exchange is phenomenal, said Saleemi.He added that the cost of waterways transportation is 80% lower than the cost of constructing highways, railways and roads. The cost of maintaining waterways is marginal as well.He said the initiative would also provide a boost to dying tourism.“Waterways are environmentally friendlier than road and rail network due to less fuel usage,” said Saleemi. “Additionally, the terrible loss of life in accidents on unsafe roads, as huge volumes of cargo are hauled across, can be reduced considerably.“It will also provide investment and job opportunities and promote river transport. Several main rivers and canals in Pakistan have the potential for navigation and transport goods and passengers after remodelling.”The load projections of transporting goods from south to north and on horizontal reaches cannot be handled by road and rail systems alone, said Saleemi. The waterways project will lessen the load on roads.The project will introduce an alternate mode of transport as over 96% of the country’s passenger traffic as well as domestic, international and transit trade is currently handled by a fleet of heavily out-dated and overloaded road sector.The writer is a staff correspondentPublished in The Express Tribune, December 28, 2015.