SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 11 of 98

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

By which National Waterways (NW) of India, are the delta channels of Mahanadi and Brahmani rivers and East Coast Canal connected?

(a)NW 1
(b)NW 2
(c)NW 5
(d)NW 3

Answer

Why

Correct — C. National Waterway 5 is the East Coast Canal taken together with the Brahmani river and the delta channels of the Mahanadi — precisely the combination the question describes.

It runs mainly through Odisha, linking the Talcher coal belt and the Paradip and Dhamra port areas into the canal system, which is why it is planned around bulk cargo such as coal.

Option (c) is the waterway of the four built as a canal-and-delta system rather than as a single river line.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
NW 1 — NW-1 is the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly route from Haldia to Prayagraj, a north Indian river line with no Mahanadi or Brahmani connection.
(b)
NW 2 — NW-2 is the Brahmaputra, from Sadiya to Dhubri in Assam. The near-identical names Brahmaputra and Brahmani are the confusion this option is built on.
(d)
NW 3 — NW-3 is the West Coast Canal in Kerala, from Kollam to Kottapuram. It is a canal system, but on the wrong coast.

Concept

India declared its first five national waterways one at a time before the law was rewritten. NW-1 is the Ganga line, NW-2 the Brahmaputra, NW-3 the West Coast Canal in Kerala, NW-4 the Godavari-Krishna with the Kakinada-Puducherry canals.

NW-5 is the East Coast Canal with the Brahmani and the Mahanadi delta.

The National Waterways Act, 2016 then declared 106 more, taking the count to 111.

Development sits with the Inland Waterways Authority of India, set up in 1986, which surveys, dredges and builds terminals on these routes.

The numbering follows the order of declaration, not geography, so it cannot be reasoned out from a map. NW-1 to NW-5 have to be memorised as a set.

Key facts

NW-5 covers the East Coast Canal along with the Brahmani river and the Mahanadi delta channels, largely in Odisha.
NW-1 is the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly waterway from Haldia to Prayagraj.
NW-2 is the Brahmaputra waterway from Sadiya to Dhubri.
The National Waterways Act, 2016 declared 106 additional waterways, taking the total to 111.

Study next

NW-3 and NW-4 by their terminal towns and statesThe Inland Waterways Authority of India and the Jal Marg Vikas Project on NW-1East coast ports and their hinterlands: Paradip, Haldia, Visakhapatnam, Chennai

Common traps

Brahmani and Brahmaputra are different rivers on opposite sides of the country.
Waterway numbers follow declaration order, so geography will not let you guess.
The Mahanadi delta lies in Odisha, not in Andhra Pradesh.

Physical geography here is asked as a name-to-place match rather than as a concept. A river's tributaries are tested the same way at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.17, where Lohit is the one that does not belong to the Ganga.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 111 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.