The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL Asia Oceania) for transportation of Liquified Natural Gas (LPG) through barges on National Waterways-1 and National Waterways-2 in the country.
As part of the MoU, the IWAI will provide support for facilitating with adequate fairway; handling of LPG cargo on IWAI terminals/multi-modal terminals at Haldia, Sahibganj and Varanasi and providing Lease Available Depth (LAD) information on fortnightly/monthly basis.
MOL Group is the world’s largest gas carrier company and will invest for construction and operation of dedicated LPG barges under Make-in-India initiative of the government of India. Aegis Group proposed investments for setting up storage terminals, dedicated pipelines between jetty to the terminal and necessary infrastructure at jetty for evacuation of products from barges.
Presently, 60 per cent of the LPG is moved through road to the various locations with a cost of Rs five to six per metric tonne per kilometre, which the oil companies are interested in reducing. Also at times, there are issues of strikes by transporters, road blockages which cause delay in transportation. Therefore, the main area of interest for the companies is to use waterways to have a cheaper alternative to the existing mode of transportation, which is also cleaner and greener mode.
Also, there are some areas which are difficult to approach through rail/road especially in the northeast region where IWT sector may provide usable solutions, besides the parcel size as compared to road trucks which can carry 17 MT of LPG in case of barges shall be of bigger size depending on the barge leading to economies of scale.
LPG cargo also needs less berthing time compared to any other bulk cargo and there is no requirement of conveyors installed on berths/jetties.
The government said that handling LPG by inland waterways will help reduce the carbon footprints, lowering the overall logistics cost, which in India stands approximately 13 to 14 per cent of the GDP, compared to global average of eight per cent.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
