KOLLAM: A lot of water has flown under the bridge since 2007, nine years after the inauguration of National Waterway III (NWIII), but the 205-km inland water stretch connecting Kollam and Kottapuram is yet to become a reality. The NWIII lies as an imaginary route connecting the inland waters in the state without any cargo or passenger service operating along the stretch. The cargo and shipping companies are least interested in procuring barges to start operating in the NWIII, allegedly owing to lack of basic infrastructure, including proper approach roads to the cargo terminals constructed at various spots along the waterway.
Though the NWIII could not attract any cargo transport, cargo terminals have been set up in eight locations including Kottapuram, Aluva, Maradu, Vaikkom, Cherthala, Thrikkunnapuzha, Kayamkulam, and Kollam spending a huge amount of money from the exchequer. “No operator was willing to start operation along the NWIII till date after its inauguration by the former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan,” N. Unni, director of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) said. The NWIII that aimed at providing an alternate transport route to International Container Transhipment Terminal to avoid the congestion in Kochi also failed to make it.
To support this, a pair of Roll in-Roll out terminals were also set up at Willingdon Island and Bolghatty in Kochi. The National Waterway III has navigable channel of minimum 38 metres bottom width in wider sections and 32 metres bottom width in narrow sections with minimum 2 metres depth was developed and maintained in entire NW-3 except a small portion of 3.25 km where the width is 12 metres, according to the Inland waterways department. Kottapuram-Kollam stretch is contained in West Coast canal (168 km) along with Champakara canal (14 km) and Udyogmandal canal (23 km) which was declared as National Waterway III in February, 1993.
