District Development Commissioner Kathua Ramesh Kumar today chaired a meeting for undertaking preliminary exercise on the scope and modalities of Inland Waterways in River Ravi which is declared National Waterways River (NW-84) by IWAI.Pertinent to mention here that State Government and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has taken steps to explore inland waterways transport facilities besides exploring the tourism on the declared National Waterways of the J&K State. The team of Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) will visit River Ravi in coming days to work out the modalities for tapping inland waterways.The DDC said the purpose was to explore the possibilities of inland waterways operation in Ranjit Sagar Dam Reservoir over River Ravi which flows through the three states Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and J&K has been declared as National Waterways 84 with a length of 42 kms.
The meeting held detail deliberations on identifying the feasible ferrying routes for jeeties, criss cross points, keeping in mind the key aspects like local demography, road connectivity etc. was held in the meeting.The DDC said there is huge potential of water transport, tourism, cargo transportation of local fruits and vegetables, dairy, fisheries, PDS grains, building material etc.He said that the project will give huge fillip to the economic activities of the area besides opening avenues of tourism and saving transportation time and cost.He directed ADC Basohli, CEO LSDA, XEN PWD (R&B) Basohli, DFO Basohli and Tehsildar Mahanpur to conduct a survey in the area from Ranjit Sagar Dam site upto Sewa Project Site to identify the potential stretches for development of waterways for transportation and recreational activities.