← Back to overview
Cargo & Commodities — FY 2024-25

Inland Waterway Cargo Dashboard

Waterway-wise cargo tonnage reported for FY 2024-25, the commodities carried, the clusters that generate that cargo, and how it moves from an inland production centre to an ocean vessel.

Official Data

Cargo Movement by National Waterway

Tonnage published by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in its annual statistics volume for inland water transport.

Grand total inland waterway cargo
145.84 MT

Reported total for the year, covering all inland waterway cargo.

FY 2024-25MoPSW
National Waterways subtotal
44.91 MT

Reported subtotal for National Waterways within the same table.

FY 2024-25MoPSW
Waterways with published individual tonnage
37.71000000000001 MT

Sum of the 7 waterways charted below. Derived from the published per-waterway figures, and lower than the reported subtotal because other waterways are not itemised publicly.

FY 2024-25MoPSW

The bars below cover only the seven waterways for which MoPSW publishes individual tonnage. They are not the whole network: the reported National Waterways subtotal is 44.91 MT, so additional waterways carry cargo that is not broken out individually. Percentages are shares of the itemised set only and are not shares of the grand total.

Cargo by waterway

FY 2024-25MoPSW

Million metric tonnes moved on each waterway

  • NW-1Ganga–Bhagirathi–Hooghly16.38 MT43.4%
  • NW-4Godavari–Krishna & canal system10.40 MT27.6%
  • NW-97Sunderbans Waterway5.98 MT15.9%
  • NW-3West Coast Canal, Kerala3.49 MT9.3%
  • NW-2Brahmaputra0.90 MT2.4%
  • NW-5Brahmani–Mahanadi delta0.38 MT1.0%
  • NW-16Barak River, Assam0.18 MT0.5%

Waterway detail

FY 2024-25MoPSW

Select a column heading to sort. Lengths come from the MoPSW waterway list, cargo from the FY 2024-25 statistics volume.

NW-11,620 km16.3843.4%
NW-42,890 km10.4027.6%
NW-97172 km5.9815.9%
NW-3205 km3.499.3%
NW-2891 km0.902.4%
NW-5233 km0.381.0%
NW-16121 km0.180.5%
Itemised total37.71100.0%
Derived from the rows above. This is not the reported National Waterways subtotal of 44.91 MT.
Data year: FY 2024-25Source: Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways — Statistics of Inland Water Transport 2024-25MoPSWMethodology and limitations
Commodity Types

What Moves on Inland Waterways

Cargoes commonly carried on Indian inland waterways, grouped by handling characteristics. This grouping is a descriptive classification, not a tonnage breakdown from any official source.

Bulk
Coal
Cement
Fly ash
Iron ore
Stone
Sand
Agricultural
Rice
Wheat
Food grains
Fertilizers
Liquid
Petroleum products
Specialised liquid cargo
Container
Manufactured products
Consumer goods
Export and import containers

MoPSW publishes tonnage by waterway, not by commodity. The commodity lists above and the corridors below are descriptive; they are not derived from an official commodity-wise tonnage table.

Cargo Origins

Industry Clusters and Loading Points

Which industrial and mining clusters generate the cargo that moves on the principal waterways, and where it is loaded.

ClusterStateLoading pointWaterwayDownstream market
Sahibganj stone and mining beltJharkhandSahibganj Multi-Modal TerminalNW-1Kolkata, Haldia and construction markets
Singrauli and Bundelkhand thermal power and cementUttar Pradesh, Madhya PradeshVaranasi MMT and Ghazipur-side jettiesNW-1Kolkata and Haldia
Assam tea, petroleum and fertiliser distributionAssamPandu and JogighopaNW-2North-East markets and Kolkata via protocol routes
Talcher coal and mineral beltOdishaNW-5 jetties under developmentNW-5Paradip and Dhamra
Barak valley construction materialsAssamBhanga terminalNW-16Regional markets and protocol routes
Sundarbans delta produce and building materialsWest BengalDelta river terminalsNW-97Kolkata and Haldia
Corridors

Cargo Flow Chains

Illustrative chains describing how a commodity moves from origin to market through the inland waterway network. These are generic logistics descriptions, not measured flows.

Coal
  1. Coal mine
  2. Rail or truck haul
  3. Inland terminal
  4. Barge on waterway
  5. River port
  6. Power plant or seaport
Stone chips
  1. Quarry in the Sahibganj belt
  2. Truck haul
  3. Sahibganj MMT
  4. Barge on NW-1
  5. Downstream terminal
  6. Construction market
Containers
  1. Factory or inland container depot
  2. Truck haul
  3. Varanasi or Pandu terminal
  4. Barge on NW-1 or NW-2
  5. Kolkata or Haldia
  6. Ocean vessel and export market
Food grains
  1. Procurement centre
  2. Rail haul
  3. Patna or Kalughat terminal
  4. Barge on NW-1
  5. North-East terminal
  6. Distribution
Comparison

Mode Characteristics

Directional characteristics of road, rail and waterway freight. No comparable, current, official cost dataset was located, so no numbers are presented.

Road
Unit costHigher per tonne-km
Load sizeSmall loads per vehicle
SpeedFastest, flexible routing

Rail
Unit costIntermediate per tonne-km
Load sizeLarge loads per rake
SpeedModerate, fixed alignment

Waterway
Unit costLower per tonne-km, bulk cargo
Load sizeLarge loads per vessel
SpeedSlowest, depth constrained

Routes

Commodity Corridors

Origin, loading terminal, waterway and destination for the principal commodity movements.

CommodityOriginTerminalWaterwayDestination
CoalJharkhand and Odisha minesSahibganj MMTNW-1Haldia or Kolkata seaport
Stone chipsSahibganj quarriesSahibganj MMTNW-1Downstream terminals
Fly ashThermal power plantsNW-1 terminalsNW-1Cement plants
Food grainsProcurement centres in Bihar and Uttar PradeshPatna or KalughatNW-1North-East
ContainersFactories and inland container depotsVaranasi or PanduNW-1 or NW-2Kolkata or Haldia
Petroleum productsRefineriesPandu terminalNW-2North-East markets
FertilizersManufacturing plantsNW-1 terminalsNW-1Agricultural regions