Which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. India has one of the longest navigable inland water networks in the world. 2. Inland waterways presently help in transporting about 25 percent of the total cargo movement. 3. About 111 inland waterways have been declared as National Waterways under the National Waterways Act, 2016. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1, 2 and 3
- (b)1 and 2 only
- (c)3 only
- (d)1 and 3 only
Correct — D, 1 and 3 only. India has about 14,500 kilometres of navigable inland waterways made up of rivers, canals, backwaters and creeks, which places its network among the longest in the world, so statement 1 holds. The National Waterways Act, 2016, which came into force on 12 April 2016, declared 111 inland waterways as National Waterways — 106 new ones plus the five that already existed under separate earlier Acts — so statement 3 holds too. Statement 2 is the planted falsehood. Inland water transport moves only a sliver of India's freight, of the order of a fraction of one per cent of inland traffic measured in tonne-kilometres, nowhere near 25 per cent. That leaves 1 and 3 only.
- (a)1, 2 and 3 — It swallows the 25 per cent claim. India's inland waterways carry a fraction of one per cent of inland freight by tonne-kilometres — the stated figure is wrong by orders of magnitude.
- (b)1 and 2 only — It keeps the false cargo share and drops the correct statement about 111 National Waterways under the 2016 Act, which is one of the most frequently asked facts in this topic.
- (c)3 only — It rejects statement 1, but India's roughly 14,500 kilometres of navigable inland waterways genuinely do form one of the longest such networks in the world. The problem with India's waterways is under-use, not length.
Inland water transport is the cheapest and least energy-intensive way to move bulk cargo, but it needs assured draft, terminals and year-round navigability. India has the physical network — long perennial rivers, an extensive canal system and coastal backwaters — but very little of it has been developed into a working freight route. The National Waterways Act, 2016 was the legal step that brought a large number of these stretches under central jurisdiction so that the Inland Waterways Authority of India could develop them.
The examiner has built the item around one inflated number. Two structural facts about India's waterways are true — the network is long, and 111 stretches have been declared National Waterways — and the statistic sandwiched between them is not. As of the September 2022 exam the declared figure was 111 and it remains 111 today, but declaring a waterway is a legal act, not a measure of traffic; only a small subset of the 111 actually carries regular commercial cargo. Whenever a statement offers a share of national freight for inland water transport, treat anything in double digits with suspicion.
- The National Waterways Act, 2016 came into force on 12 April 2016 and declared 111 inland waterways as National Waterways.
- Of these, 106 were newly declared and five already existed as National Waterways under separate earlier Acts.
- India has about 14,500 kilometres of navigable inland waterways, of which roughly 5,200 kilometres of rivers and 4,000 kilometres of canals can take mechanised craft.
- Inland water transport carries only about 0.1 per cent of India's inland freight by tonne-kilometres, against roughly 21 per cent in the United States.
- Accepting a big-sounding percentage for inland water cargo; the real share is well under one per cent.
- Treating 'declared' National Waterways as the same thing as operational, cargo-carrying ones.
A multi-statement set that surrounds one inflated statistic with two verifiable structural facts, so the whole item turns on spotting the number.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
How many inland waterways were declared as National Waterways under the National Waterways Act, 2016?
- (a)101
- (b)106
- (c)111
- (d)116
Answer(c) 111 — that is 106 newly declared waterways plus the five that already existed under earlier Acts.
- practice — not a real PYQ
National Waterway 1 of India lies along which river system?
- (a)Brahmaputra
- (b)Ganga
- (c)Godavari
- (d)Mahanadi
Answer(b) Ganga — National Waterway 1 runs along the Ganga system between Haldia and Prayagraj.