The agreement was signed by Dr C S Mohapatra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of Government of India & Rajdeep Dutta, Deputy Resident Commissioner on behalf of Government of WB & Mr Junaid Ahmad, Country Director on behalf of World Bank.
Objective of the Project:
i.To improve inland water transport infrastructure in Kolkata, West Bengal.
ii.Improve Efficiency & safety of passenger & freight movement across the Hooghly River.
iii.Establish a spatial planning framework to enhance accessibility within Kolkata Metropolitan Area.
Key Points:
i.The Loan will have a maturity of 17 years including a grace period of 7 years.
ii.The project will connect 5 districts of Southern West Bengal with markets & Job Centers including Kolkata’s Metropolitan Area (KMA) where around 30 Million people or one-third of West Bengal’s population live.
iii.The project aims to develop KMA as a transport & logistics hub for the sub-region by using the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) & connecting to North-East & land-locked countries of Nepal & Bhutan.
iv.The ferry transport will also decongest Kolkata’s three bridges, as 80% of Freight and passenger traffic use these bridges to cross the Hooghly river.
v.The existing ferry system caters to less than 2% of passenger traffic and a small portion of freight movement.
Project Implementation:
The Project is set to implemented in 2 phases:
Phase-I:
i.Enhance the capacity and improve the safety of Inland Water Transport system
ii.Restore existing ferries, buying new ferries with enhanced design
iii.Install electronic gates in 40 locations.
Phase-II:
i.Support Long-term investments for passenger movements, including terminals & jetties.
ii.Improve design of inland water transport vessels.
iii.Ensure night navigation & encourage private sector to invest in Ro-Ro vessels to facilitate easy movement of trucks across the Hooghly river.
Facilities:
i.To cope with flooding, precipitation, climate-smart engineering solutions will be applied.
ii.The project will also facilitate disable-friendly amenities, ensure women’s safety & encourage women’s employment in the Inland Water Transport (IWT) Department as well as with the ferry operators.
Recent Related News:
i.July 17, 2020, NABARD sanctioned Rs 795 crore to West Bengal to reconstruct infrastructure which was damaged by Cyclone Amphan(May) under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).
About World Bank:
Headquarters- Washington, D.C., United States
President- David R. Malpass
About West Bengal:
Chief Minister – Mamata Banerjee
Governor – Jagdeep Dhankhar