In awesome news, you might get to experience ‘water taxis’ plying on the waters of Yamuna river. In a first, the Ministry of Shipping and Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is launching a ‘water taxi’ project with an ultimate objective to develop tourism in the NCR.
As per the reports, the Central Government will spend Rs 28 crore for this project including the cost of building terminals and that of vessels.
“Taking a ride on the pilot stretch will take about 30-40 minutes. During pilot run we will either hire the boats engaged by the National Cadet Corps or hire from the agencies that provide such motorised boats. Once the infrastructure and jetties are ready, we will bring in vessels that run on both electricity (using battery power) and diesel,” an official involved in this project told Times Of India.
In the first phase itself, the service will be provided in the upstream portion of the Wazirabad Barrage, including 3 other locations – Sonia Vihar, Jagatpura and Tronica City.
The ferry ride will cover 16-kilometre stretch from Sonia Vihar in Delhi’s Wazirabad to Tronica City in Ghaziabad, in about 45 minutes.
IWAI chairman Prabir Pande also said, “The Principal Committee of the National Green Tribunal gave a No Objection Certificate to the project. The land acquisition with the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi governments is in an advanced stage. It will take a few months, and after the acquisition, we will start the trial of the vessel.”
The national capital has long been struggling with traffic jams. So through this project, the travel time will be cut short so much so that the amount of traffic on roads will be reduced.
As per the reports, authorities are also working on taking clearances from the concerned units, and the Government is quite positive about the strategy as they have already reached an agreement on the release of abundant water in the river from the adjoining state.
This is being done to sort out the problem of insufficient water in the river.
Though the project will be good for the citizens, there will be two major concerns. One is the loss of biodiversity and the other is pollution in the river.
FYI, Yamuna is already polluted and strict rules will have to be put in place so that people wouldn’t dump any waste in the river, during the ride.