Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for transforming India's inland waterways from neglected rivers into active corridors of commerce and connectivity over the past 12 years.

Context

Posting under the hashtag #12YearsOfJalmargSeVikas (12 years of development through waterways), Sonowal wrote that rivers 'once left neglected for decades are roaring back to life' and have become 'routes of prosperity, bustling with activity and vital lifelines for New India.' The post marks a milestone moment in the ruling government's communication around its infrastructure record, timed to the completion of 12 years of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's waterways push.

The minister described inland waterways as having transformed into 'a powerful pillar of multimodal logistics, modern infrastructure, sustainability and seamless connectivity,' framing river transport as central to the country's economic architecture rather than a peripheral mode.

Policy Backdrop

The waterways revival rests on a sequence of legislative and programmatic interventions beginning in 2015. The Jal Marg Vikas Project, a World Bank-assisted initiative, was approved that year to develop National Waterway-1 on the Ganga through capital dredging, modern terminals and navigational aids. The Sagarmala Programme, also launched in 2015, integrated coastal shipping and inland waterways with port modernisation into a single framework.

A year later, the National Waterways Act, 2016 declared 111 rivers, creeks and canals as national waterways, formally expanding the policy mandate well beyond the handful of routes that were then operational. The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, notified in 2021, subsequently incorporated waterways as a dedicated multimodal logistics layer alongside roads, rail and ports.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the statutory body under Sonowal's ministry, has been the principal implementing agency across these programmes, responsible for development, regulation and maintenance of national waterways.

Stakeholders and Impact

The policy shift has drawn interest from logistics firms and freight transporters seeking lower-cost, lower-emission alternatives to road and rail movement. Riverine states along the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Krishna-Godavari systems have been the primary beneficiaries of active investment, with development concentrated on a small number of operationalised stretches while the broader pool of 111 declared waterways remains at varying early stages.

For northeastern India in particular, inland waterways carry strategic significance as a connectivity option in terrain where road and rail expansion is constrained. The emphasis on the Brahmaputra corridor aligns with both regional economic goals and broader export ambitions tied to the Act East Policy.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to cargo volume data from IWAI and any parliamentary disclosures on the operationalisation of additional national waterways beyond the current active stretches. The government's ability to scale activity across a wider set of the 111 declared waterways will be the clearest measure of whether the transformation Sonowal describes has moved from flagship corridors to a genuinely national network. Analysts and industry stakeholders will also watch for freight-cost benchmarks as the multimodal integration envisioned under PM Gati Shakti matures.