Lessons from the now scrapped Delhi-Agra Waterway Project: Don’t boast earlier than doing any precise work or analysis

In the final six years, the Modi authorities has created a lot hype across the Delhi-Agra Waterway Project. Nitin Gadkari, the previous Union Minister for ports, delivery, and waterways, has been boasting in regards to the Delhi-Agra waterway since 2014.On December 3, 2014, Gadkari mentioned, “Soon people can go to Agra via Delhi through the Yamuna. We will request the prime minister and the finance minister to ensure special funds for the project.”Later in 2015, Gadkari once more mentioned that he had ordered a feasibility research report and was very optimistic that the work on the mission would begin quickly. Later in December 2016, he revealed that the individuals would have the ability to sail from Delhi to Agra very quickly via the waterway mission and it might carry down the price of transportation between the 2 cities.On March 5, 2019, Gadkari as soon as once more boasted in regards to the waterway mission and mentioned {that a} Rs 12,000 crore mission for growing a water route from Delhi to Agra to Prayagraj has been ready.However, now, after promoting this dream mission to the individuals of the nation for greater than six years, the federal government scrapped the mission as a result of it was not discovered economically viable within the techno-economic feasibility report.“River Yamuna from Jagatpur (6 km upstream of Wazirabad Barrage), Delhi to the confluence of Yamuna and Ganga rivers at Sangam, Prayagraj (which includes the waterway stretch from Delhi to Agra) was declared as National Waterway-1 10 (NW-l 1 0) under the National Waterways Act, 2016. Detailed Project Report (DPR) of NW-1 10 to assess the techno-economic feasibility of the project was completed in January 2020.“As per the DPR, the project has not been found viable,” mentioned the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, headed by Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya.So, the waterway mission that was being offered by the union ministry to the individuals of the nation, particularly of Delhi-NCR, for the final six years, is rarely going to be on the bottom. This hurts the picture of the federal government that has invested a lot in infrastructure and is speaking about an infrastructure investment-led economic system for the upcoming decade.If a mission is discovered to be viable by the highest worldwide businesses, it is perhaps so. But promoting it to the individuals of the nation for six years with out having a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on feasibility is unquestionably like promoting hole goals.Just a few weeks in the past, PM Modi inaugurated a slew of infrastructure tasks together with highways, railway traces, dams, and bridges. “Those who ruled for decades since Independence believed Dispur was too distant from Delhi. ‘Dilli ab door nahi aapke darwaaze par hai’ (Delhi is not far now, it stands at your doorstep),” he advised to the massive crowd gathered to listen to Prime Minister.Prior to that, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated many infrastructure tasks in two different poll-bound states in Southern India, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. “The great Malayalam poet Kumaran Asan said ‘I am not asking your caste, sister, I ask for water. I’m thirsty.’ Development and good governance do not know caste, creed, race, gender, religion or language. Development is for everyone,” mentioned PM Modi.The message that the federal government is making an attempt to ship may be very clear. The elections would now be fought on infrastructure, not freebies. And amid this, a mission that the federal government boasted for six years, was cancelled as a result of the Ministry began throwing it for media headlines earlier than the feasibility report.