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Cargo movement on National Waterways reached 218 million metric tonnes in FY 2025-26.
The Union Budget 2026-27 announced a Coastal Cargo Promotion Scheme to raise the combined modal share of coastal shipping and inland waterways from 6% to 12% by 2047.
The Jalvahak scheme gives a 35% incentive to cargo owners and introduces scheduled services on NW-1, NW-2 and NW-16.
Average turnaround time at Major Ports improved to 48.84 hours in 2025-26 from 52.87 hours in 2021-22.
Jawaharlal Nehru Port ranked 22nd in the World Bank's Container Port Performance Index 2025.
Modal share is the proportion of total freight carried by each mode — road, rail, coastal shipping and inland waterways. India's freight is overwhelmingly road-borne, which is the most expensive and most emission-intensive way to move bulk cargo over long distances. Water is the cheapest per tonne-kilometre and the least polluting, but it is also the slowest and requires the origin and destination to be near a navigable route. The Coastal Cargo Promotion Scheme's target of moving the combined coastal and inland waterways share from 6% to 12% by 2047 is therefore a statement about logistics cost across the whole economy, not merely about the shipping sector: doubling the water share pulls a large volume of bulk cargo off congested highways.
Simple Analogy: Moving grain by barge instead of by truck — slower to arrive, but a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the fuel.
Port-led development of the coastal economy
Key: Operates through pillars covering port modernisation, port connectivity, coastal community development, and coastal shipping and inland waterways development; no project has been sanctioned under the port-led industrialisation pillar
Shift cargo onto inland waterways
Key: 35% incentive to cargo owners, plus scheduled services on NW-1, NW-2 and NW-16 via the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol operated by Inland and Coastal Shipping Limited
Incentivise the shift of cargo from road and rail to coastal shipping and inland waterways
Key: Announced in the Union Budget 2026-27, targeting a rise in combined modal share from 6% to 12% by 2047, and expected to draw private investment into vessels, terminals, ship repair and multimodal logistics
Attract private investment into inland waterways terminals
Key: Provides a clear regulatory framework allowing private companies to invest in and operate inland waterways terminals
Improve the tax position of inland vessel operators
Key: Extended in the Union Budget 2025-26 to inland vessels registered under the Indian Vessels Act, 2021
Build an innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem for the maritime sector
Key: Launched 19 March 2025; implemented by the Maritime India Foundation; Maritime Innovation Hubs at IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and the Indian Maritime University, Chennai
Develops and regulates inland waterways for shipping and navigation
Provides marine aids to navigation along the Indian coast, and runs the lighthouse tourism programme
Designated implementing agency for the Sagarmala Startup and Innovation Initiative
Carried out the independent third-party impact evaluation of Sagarmala projects
GS Paper 3 > Infrastructure > Ports, Shipping and Inland Waterways
General Awareness > Infrastructure and Schemes
General Awareness > Transport Infrastructure
Ports and inland waterways are a standing GS Paper 3 theme, and national waterway numbering is a recurring Prelims matching question.
The proportion of total freight carried by each transport mode; the target is to raise the combined coastal and inland waterways share from 6% to 12% by 2047
The average time a vessel spends in port from arrival to departure — the standard measure of port efficiency
The scheme giving a 35% incentive to cargo owners for using inland waterways, with scheduled services on NW-1, NW-2 and NW-16
The arrangement permitting inland vessel transit and trade between India and Bangladesh, used by the scheduled services on the northeastern waterways
The law governing lighthouses and navigation aids; Section 23 permits their use for educational, cultural and tourism purposes