Geography Quiz: National Waterways and Inland Water Transport

The correct answer is B, the Ganga, Bhagirathi and Hooghly. National Waterway 1 runs 1,620 km from Haldia in West Bengal to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, through West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and was the first waterway to be declared national, in 1986. Option A is wrong because the Brahmaputra from Dhubri to Sadiya is National Waterway 2, declared in 1988. Option C is wrong because stretches of the Godavari and the Krishna, together with the Kakinada and Puducherry canals, make up National Waterway 4. Option D is wrong because the Narmada is a separate and much later declared waterway, numbered 73, and the Tapi is not among the older waterways at all. NW-1 is also the waterway on which the Jal Marg Vikas Project is being carried out.

The correct answer is C, 1,620 km, which makes National Waterway 1 the longest of India's national waterways and the one with the largest cargo movement. Option A, 891 km, is the length of National Waterway 2 on the Brahmaputra between Dhubri and Sadiya, and it is the figure most often swapped with this one. Option B, 1,095 km, is the length of National Waterway 4, which uses the Kakinada and Puducherry canals with stretches of the Godavari and the Krishna. Option D is simply larger than any single national waterway and does not match any of them. A useful way to remember the set is 1,620 for NW-1, 891 for NW-2, 205 for NW-3, 1,095 for NW-4 and 623 for NW-5. Note also that the Prayagraj end was earlier written as Allahabad in older papers, so both names appear in question stems for the same waterway.

The correct answer is A, Dhubri and Sadiya. National Waterway 2 follows the Brahmaputra for 891 km inside Assam, from Dhubri on the Bangladesh border to Sadiya in the upper valley, and its principal terminal is Pandu near Guwahati. Option B names the two ends of National Waterway 1 on the Ganga system. Option C names the ends of National Waterway 3, the West Coast Canal in Kerala. Option D names the ends of National Waterway 16 on the Barak river, which serves the Barak valley of southern Assam and is often confused with NW-2 because both lie in the same state. Through the inland water transit protocol with Bangladesh, cargo on NW-2 can reach Kolkata and Haldia and ports in Bangladesh. Dhubri also serves as a port of call under the protocol with Bangladesh, which is how Assam is linked by water to Kolkata.

The correct answer is B, 1986. The Authority came into being in 1986 under the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act, 1985, and its headquarters is at Noida in Uttar Pradesh. It develops and maintains the national waterways through dredging, terminals and navigation aids and works under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways. Option A is wrong and belongs to no event in this chapter. Option C is wrong because 1993 is the year National Waterway 3, the West Coast Canal in Kerala, was declared. Option D is wrong because 2016 is the year of the National Waterways Act, which declared 111 waterways as national waterways. The commonest trap in this question is to answer 1985, the year of the Act, instead of 1986, the year the Authority was constituted.

The correct answer is C, one hundred and eleven. The National Waterways Act, 2016 brought together in one statute the five waterways already declared between 1986 and 2008 and added many more, making 111 in all, spread over rivers, canals, creeks, estuaries and backwaters in most states of the country. Option A is wrong because five was the number before the Act, declared one at a time by separate laws. Option B is a made-up figure and does not correspond to any stage of the declaration. Option D is wrong and is the kind of near miss that catches candidates who remember only that the number is above a hundred. Remember that declaration by Parliament is only the first step; a waterway carries cargo only after dredging, terminals and navigation aids are in place.

The correct answer is C, Kerala. National Waterway 3 runs 205 km from Kollam to Kottapuram along the West Coast Canal and includes the Champakara and Udyogmandal canals, which serve the industrial belt near Kochi. Declared in 1993, it was the first national waterway to be given navigation aids for use by day and by night, and it runs through the Kerala backwaters that also carry heavy tourist traffic. Option A is wrong, though Goa does have two waterways, NW-68 on the Mandovi and NW-111 on the Zuari, used for moving ore. Option B is wrong because Karnataka's waterways are smaller and were declared only under the 2016 Act. Option D is wrong because Maharashtra has NW-10 on the Amba and other short waterways, not the West Coast Canal.

The correct answer is C, National Waterway 16. The Barak between Lakhipur and Bhanga, about 121 km, serves the Barak valley of southern Assam, and through Karimganj it joins the protocol route across Bangladesh, which makes it the lifeline of a region cut off from the rest of Assam by hills. Option A is wrong because National Waterway 2 is the Brahmaputra from Dhubri to Sadiya, in the other valley of the same state. Option B is wrong because the Barak stretch had earlier been declared as National Waterway 6 under a separate law, but after the 2016 Act the Barak waterway is listed as NW-16, which is the number asked for today. Option D is wrong because National Waterway 110 is the Yamuna from Delhi to Prayagraj.

The correct answer is B, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, under which the Inland Waterways Authority of India functions. Shipping and navigation on inland waterways declared by Parliament to be national waterways is a Union List subject, which is why a central Act is needed to declare each waterway. Option A is wrong because the Ministry of Jal Shakti handles water resources, river development, irrigation and drinking water, not navigation. Option C is wrong because road transport and highways is a separate ministry, although multi-modal terminals link waterways to highways. Option D is wrong because the environment ministry only grants clearances for dredging and terminal construction. Candidates often answer Jal Shakti because the subject involves rivers, and that is the trap. Remember the chain: the Union List entry, then the ministry, then the Authority created by the 1985 Act, which is the order in which this topic is set.

The correct answer is A, National Waterway 1. The Jal Marg Vikas Project, taken up with assistance from the World Bank, deepens the channel of the Ganga between Haldia and Varanasi and builds multi-modal terminals, jetties and navigation aids so that larger vessels can sail through the year. The terminals at Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia belong to this project. Option B is wrong because work on the Brahmaputra waterway runs under separate schemes centred on the Pandu terminal. Option C is wrong because National Waterway 3 in Kerala was already equipped for day and night navigation and needs no such capacity project. Option D is wrong because National Waterway 5, the East Coast Canal with the Brahmani and Mahanadi delta rivers, is developed in phases by the Authority itself.

The correct answer is B, Jharkhand. Sahibganj lies on the Ganga in the north-eastern corner of Jharkhand and its terminal was built to move coal and stone chips from the Rajmahal belt by water instead of road. Option A is wrong because Bihar's stretch of NW-1 is served by terminals and jetties at places such as Patna and Kalughat, not Sahibganj. Option C is wrong because the West Bengal end of the waterway is Haldia, which has both a port and a multi-modal terminal. Option D is wrong because Uttar Pradesh has the Varanasi terminal at Ramnagar and the Prayagraj end of the waterway. Remembering the three terminals of the Jal Marg Vikas Project as Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia, in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal, answers several versions of this question.

The correct answer is A, 1917. The Inland Vessels Act, 2021 replaced the Inland Steam Vessels Act of 1917, a colonial law under which every state registered vessels separately. The new Act provides a single certificate of registration valid across the country, a central database of vessels and crew, and uniform rules on safety and pollution, so that a vessel registered in one state can sail on the waterways of another without fresh paperwork. Option B is wrong because 1934 belongs to the Aircraft Act and to the Reserve Bank of India Act, not to inland vessels. Option C is wrong because the Merchant Shipping Act of 1958 governs sea-going ships, which is the likeliest confusion here. Option D is wrong because 1985 is the year of the Act that created the Inland Waterways Authority of India.