ransport is one of the oldest means of transport in India. Prior to the advent of rail and road transports, goods and people were moved from one place to another through water transport. Since there is almost very small cost involved in the construc­tion and maintenance of waterways this transport system is always cheaper.According to one estimate the construction of each km of railway and road needs an investment of Rs. 1.0-1.5 crores and Rs. 0.60-0.75 crore respectively whereas only Rs. 0.10 crore is required to develop same length of water­ways. Their development is faster and maintenance cost much lower. Waterways are of two TYPES: (a) Inland waterways, and (b) Sea ways or ocean ways also called shipping.Inland WaterwaysLater on the development of roads adversely affected the pros­pects of such transport. The diversion of river water irrigation CANALS made many of these rivers unsuit­able for navigation,. So much so that today its share is only one per cent in the country’s transport system.India is a land of many long and perennial rivers. But water transport is not very popular in the country. This is mainly due to seasonal concentra­tion of rainfall, fluctuating river regime, devastating floods during rainy season, shifting river courses (in the Northern Plains) making it difficult to construct permanent jetty or wharf, diversion of large quantity of river water into irrigation canals so as to reduce the depth of water in the river and making it unsuit­able for steamers and mechanised boats, heavy silt­ing and formation of sandbars, undulating topogra­phy in hilly and plateau regions leading to the forma­tion of a number of rapids, and formation of delta and diversion channels making the mouth narrower for the entry of ships and big boats.The country has about 14,500 km of naviga­ble waterways which comprises rivers, canals, back­waters, CREEKS, etc. Of this TOTAL length only a length of 3,700 km of major rivers is navigable by mecha­nised crafts but the length actually utilised is only 2,000 km. As regards canals, out of 4,300 km of navigation canals, only 900 km is suitable for navigation by mechanized crafts. About 160 lakh tonnes of cargo is annually moved by Indiand Wjjter Transport.The most important wa­terways of the country are : the Ganga Bhagirathi Hugli, the Brahmaputra river , the Barak river, the delta and lower courses of the Mahanadi, Godavari and Krishna rivers, the lower courses of the Narmada and TAPI, the Zuari and Mandovi rivers in Goa, the Kali, Shravati and Netravati in Karnataka.1.