EXPLORING THE TRANSPORTATION POTENTIAL OF RIVERS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

A recent National Highway Authority report predicts over 4-fold increase in trade volume by 2025 in Pakistan. Current trajectory of transportation infrastructure development in the country points that highways and motorways would take the bulk of this volume. The existing literature, however, suggests that inland waterways can handle 70 and 16 times more cargo than roads and railroads respectively. Additionally, waterways are 700/70 times safer in terms of accidents, 5/3 times more fuel efficient, and, 11/1.5 times less emitting than roads/railroads. Inland waterways, therefore, are an obvious mode for transportation both in developed and developing countries. However, despite having sizeable rivers in Pakistan this mode of transportation remains absent. This study has investigated the potential of inland water transportation in Pakistan and finds that it is technically possible and can become socio-economically sustainable when implemented with a systematic phase-wise plan. The first phase of the inland waterways should be planned to connect Kotri with Arabian Sea through Indus Delta with a Class Va inland waterway powered by electric barges. The initial investments required for this phase of the project are comparable to equivalent road infrastructure and can reduce the transportation costs for sea-borne trade of Pakistan. The study also points that existing water usage in the agriculture sector, due to its inefficiency and wastage, is the biggest impediment to reach the optimum potential of the inland navigation in our rivers and recommends a parallel approach in improving irrigation efficiency along with the development of inland waterways.