 _ statement of objects and reasonsin the absence of suitable organisation and paucity of resources with the state governments, the development of inland water transport has not made much headway there are certain advantages in this mode of transport, such as, low cost transport, energy efficiency, generation of employment among weaker sections of the community and its ecofriendly nature various committees set up by the government for the purpose of looking into this matter recommended that the central government should declare certain waterways as national waterway sand assume responsible for their development 2 the central government have accordingly constituted the inland waterways authority of india under the inland waterways authority of india act, 1985 (82 of 1985), for the regulation and development of inland waterways for purposes of shipping and navigation allahabad-haldia stretch of the ganga-bhagirathi-hooghly river, sadiya-dhubri stretch of the brahmaputra river and kollam-kottappuram stretch of west coast canal along with champakkara and udyogamandal! canals have already been declared as national waterways by the national waterway (allahabad-haldia stretch of the ganga-bhagirathi-hooghly river) act, 1982 (49 of 1982), the national waterway (sadiya-dhubri stretch of the brahmaputra river) act, 1988 (40 of 1988) and the national waterway (koliam-kottappuram stretch of west coast canaland champakkara and udyogamandal canals) act, 1992 (25 of 1992), respectively consequently, inland waterways authority of india has taken up the development, maintenance and management of these waterways 3 itis now proposed to declare talcher-dhamra stretch of the brahmani-kharsua- dhamra rivers, goenkhali-charbatia stretch of the east coast canal, charbatia-dhamra stret-h ofthe matai river and mahanadi delta rivers between mangalgadi and paradipas a nation! waterway infrastructural facilities currently available on this waterway are not adequate fo safe, convenient and sustained shipping and navigation by large mechanised crafts therefore, the waterway is required to be developed by providing adequate infrastructure for safe, convenient and sustained shipping operations the regulation and development of the proposed national waterway under the control of the union for the purposes of shipping and navigation is in the public interest and declaration to that effect has also been made in this bill 4 the bill seeks to achieve the above objects new delhi trbaalu the 24th november, 2006  president's recommendation under article 117 of the constitution of india[copy of letter no nw-12013/2/2004-iwt (vol i), dated the 24th november, 2006 trom shri 7r baalu, minister of shipping, road transport and highways to the secretary- general, lok sabha] the president, having been informed of the subject matter of the proposed natiunal waterway (talcher-dhamra stretch of rivers, geonkhali-charbatia stretch of eas: coast canal, charbatia-dhamra stretch of matai river and mahanadi delta rivers) bill 2006 recommends under article 117(3) of the constitution of india, the consideration of the e:'ll by lok sabha financial memorandumthe regulation and development of the proposed national waterway will be carried out by the inland waterways authority of india constituted under the inland- waterways authority of india act, 1985 (82 of 1985) consequently, three distinct functions namely, development, maintenance and management of the proposed waterway will devolve on the inland waterways authority of india it has been visualised that inland water transport traffic to the tune of 1807 million tonnes is likely to be carried on the proposed national waterway after its full development by the year 2016-17 this traffic is expected to be handled at 4 terminals namely, talcher, nasirabad, balasore and rajnagar the development of the rivers and canals along with provision of infrastructural facilities for purposes of shipping and navigation to handle the above mentioned traffic includes development of the waterway for navigation, channel marking, construction of terminals, transit sheds, installation of handling equipment, etc it is estimated that the expenditure with respect to the said development will be of the order of rs 152600 crores which will be of a non-recurring nature 2 in addition, it is estimated that an expenditure of recurring of the order of rs 5900 crores annually will be incurred for operating the waterway and terminals