The government is looking to harness country’s 50,000 km of sea and river fronts as waterways and mulling innovative ways of financing to raise around Rs 70,000 crore to develop these stretches in the first phase, Union Minister, Nitin Gadkari said. Besides budgetary support, multilateral funds, public-private-partnership and market borrowing would be explored. Access to funds like National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) and Central Road Fund (CRF) will also be required because of environment benefit of IWT, he said. Now that Parliament has given its nod to declare 111 additional rivers as waterways, the government is committed to aggressively work to develop these as the environment friendly mode of transport which is bound to decrease significantly the huge 18 per cent logistics cost in India. So far, only five of the river stretches were declared as National Waterways. Country’s 14 states are bestowed with 7,500 km of coastline with 14,500-km of potentially navigable waterways. In addition, 116 rivers across the country provide 35,000 km of navigable stretches. The reforms in the sector would be visible in a few years, he said. Water transport is not only environment-friendly but also much cheaper. Mr. Gadkari said that development of waterways will change the face of India.