The government has decided to identify the potential and approaches to attract funds in the Inland

Waterways sector. With a push from the Prime Minister's Office, a committee has been set up to identify the areas of investment as also the business models to scale up private investment. An official statement said that the Committee will undertake a systematic effort to identify new areas for private investment, both in infrastructure and in transportation. It will also identify multiple business models which could then be bid out through concessions.

This will be supplemented by designing Model Concession Agreements (MCAs) and other standardised documents for facilitating a rapid scaling up of investment.

The Committee will be headed by Secretary (Planning) and include Secretary (Shipping), Director General of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and a representative of Department of Economic Affairs as members.

The statement said,since January, PMO has identified and fast-tracked implementation of key projects in the National Waterways -1, 2 and 3. These are the Varanasi-Haldia stretch of the Ganga (NW-1), the Brahmaputra in Assam (NW-2) and the inland stretch in Kerala (NW-3).

IWAI has moved forward on large scale private investments to transport coal and fertilizer on NW-1, foodgrains and coal on NW-2 and a lot of cargo on NW-3.