India’s logistics network has expanded alongside digital commerce, but its reach remains uneven in places where geography complicates the final connection between a distribution hub and a customer. In riverine, island and backwater regions, consumers may be able to order goods online while delivery operators still face difficult routes, fragmented settlements and limited road access. The question is whether inland waterways logistics can become a practical part of that last-mile system rather than remaining primarily a channel for bulk freight.
The issue is not simply whether India has enough waterways. It is whether roads, jetties, aggregation points, boats, digital systems and local delivery networks can work together with sufficient reliability. The distinction matters because transport infrastructure and delivery accessibility are not the same thing. A road may connect an eligible habitation to the wider network, yet the final journey to an individual household can remain costly or operationally difficult.
The opportunity is emerging as both the logistics economy and online demand expand. The logistics industry is forecast to grow to as much as $281.74 billion by 2026, while rural internet users exceeded 427.7 million during financial year 2025-26, according to the material cited in the NDTV Business report. Those figures point to a widening digital market, but they do not by themselves show that every potential customer can be served efficiently. The distribution challenge becomes sharper where settlements are dispersed or water is a more practical route than a road.
### Beyond road connectivity
India has made significant progress in rural road connectivity. The report states that 99 per cent of eligible habitations have been connected through the first phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. That achievement expands physical access, but it does not eliminate the operational problems of last-mile delivery. A logistics network designed around highways and urban corridors may still struggle when the final destination lies across a backwater, along a canal or within a settlement that cannot be reached directly by conventional delivery vehicles.
This creates a different definition of reach. For a logistics provider, reach is not only the number of locations connected to a road or distribution centre. It also includes the cost, time and dependability of completing the final leg. In water-bound areas, the relevant network may include a road connection to a landing point, a boat journey across a water route and a local delivery service capable of completing the final handoff.
The report’s central argument is therefore not that waterways should replace roads. Water transport is most useful where water already functions as a practical corridor. The stronger proposition is that logistics companies and public agencies need to combine modes according to local geography instead of applying a single network model across very different settlement patterns.
### The inland waterways opportunity
India has 111 National Waterways covering more than 20,000 kilometres. By March 2026, 32 of those waterways, covering more than 5,100 kilometres, were functional, according to the figures cited in the report. The volume of goods moved through the waterways had exceeded 198 million tonnes by February.
Those numbers describe a system that is gaining scale, but they also reveal the current profile of inland water transport. Bulk cargo accounts for much of the increase. Consumer logistics presents a different operating requirement. Freight moving in large volumes between designated points is not identical to individual deliveries spread across villages, islands or backwater settlements. The consumer model requires more frequent coordination between transport legs, local operators, sorting points and customer-facing delivery systems.
The Centre’s goal of raising the share of freight carried on waterways from about 2 per cent to 5 per cent by 2030 provides a policy direction for this expansion. The report links that objective to programmes such as PM Gati Shakti and Jalvahak. Their significance for last-mile delivery lies in the possibility of coordinating infrastructure and transport modes rather than treating waterways as an isolated freight system.
However, the figures do not establish that the target will automatically translate into more efficient consumer deliveries. They show the scale of the existing network, the portion described as functional and the volume already moving through waterways. The remaining question is how much of that capacity can be connected to smaller consignments and dispersed customers without creating additional handling costs or unreliable transfer points.
### What local adaptation reveals
The Vallam Express initiative in Kerala’s Alappuzha region offers a local example of how this model may work. It serves 14 villages and nearly two lakh residents by combining organised logistics with local boat operators who understand routes that are inaccessible by road.
The importance of the initiative is not simply that boats are being used for delivery. It is the combination of formal logistics coordination and place-specific knowledge. Local operators possess an understanding of routes, landing points and settlement patterns that a standardised network may not capture. Their participation can help bridge the gap between a regional logistics system and the realities of a water-based community.
Abhishek Chakraborty, CEO of DTDC Express, told NDTV that India’s varied geographies, infrastructure and ways of living mean that scale does not always come from standardisation. He described the opportunity as a shift towards an adaptive network model that combines multiple modes, local ecosystems and modern logistics capabilities.
That observation points to an important distinction in logistics design. Standardisation can improve predictability when infrastructure and demand are relatively uniform. But where routes, settlement forms and transport conditions differ sharply, a uniform system may leave gaps even as it expands. An adaptive model does not reject organised logistics; it adds local capability to the parts of the network where a standard approach is insufficient.
### The policy and infrastructure challenge
For inland waterways to contribute to consumer logistics, the water route itself is only one part of the required system. Deliveries need places where goods can be aggregated, transferred and collected. Roads must connect those points to distribution hubs and final destinations. Jetties and landing facilities need to function as interfaces between modes. Technology must help coordinate orders, routing and handoffs, while local delivery networks must complete the journey after goods leave the boat.
This makes multimodal integration the central infrastructure question. PM Gati Shakti is relevant in this context because the report presents it as a mechanism that can support coordinated planning across transport systems. Jalvahak is also identified as part of the policy landscape connected to the effort to increase freight movement on waterways.
The available material does not establish the precise funding structure, implementation timetable or performance indicators for each scheme in relation to e-commerce deliveries. It does, however, show the direction of policy: increase the role of waterways in freight, improve coordination between modes and make use of existing local transport ecosystems where they are operationally valuable.
That direction also changes the way infrastructure success should be assessed. The number of kilometres designated as a waterway or the volume of bulk freight moved is important, but consumer access requires additional measures. The relevant question is whether a customer in a difficult-to-reach settlement can receive a delivery at a dependable cost and within a reasonable time. The report describes accessibility, rather than infrastructure alone, as the more meaningful measure of reach.
### The data gap in last-mile delivery
The figures available in the report show a clear tension. Rural internet use is expanding, and the logistics industry is expected to grow substantially. Road connectivity has also reached nearly all eligible habitations under the cited rural roads programme. At the same time, the operational accessibility of water-bound and dispersed settlements remains unresolved.
What the supplied evidence does not show is the share of e-commerce deliveries currently carried by inland waterways, the comparative cost of boat-based and road-based delivery, or the delivery-time difference between the two models. It also does not establish how many of the 32 functional National Waterways are suitable for consumer logistics. Those gaps matter because a water route that is navigable for bulk cargo may not necessarily support frequent, smaller-scale delivery operations.
The Vallam Express example indicates that local initiatives can serve communities that conventional road-centred networks find difficult to reach. But one regional example cannot demonstrate nationwide scalability. It does show that local knowledge and organised logistics can coexist, and that the appropriate model may differ according to geography.
The policy target of raising the waterways’ freight share to 5 per cent by 2030 will therefore need to be understood alongside the quality of connections around each waterway. Freight share measures the role of the mode in the overall transport system. Last-mile access measures whether that system can serve individual communities. The two objectives can reinforce each other, but they are not identical.
### The larger urban and regional question
The challenge extends beyond logistics companies. It concerns how India plans infrastructure for settlements that do not fit a highway-led model. Riverine and island communities are not peripheral to the digital economy simply because their transport routes differ. If online demand reaches these areas faster than delivery systems adapt, the result is a market with formal connectivity but uneven practical access.
Inland waterways could help close that gap where they are integrated with roads, jetties, aggregation facilities and local operators. They could also remain underused if investment focuses on the water corridor without building the interfaces that make deliveries possible. The evidence in the report supports a multimodal approach, but it does not yet establish how widely or efficiently that approach is operating.
India’s logistics future, as presented by the available evidence, will depend less on choosing a single superior transport mode than on coordinating the modes already present in different places. Roads remain essential, particularly for distribution hubs and final household connections. Waterways can add value where they reflect the geography of everyday movement. Local boat operators can provide capabilities that a standardised network may not possess.
The confirmed trend is that digital demand, logistics expansion and inland-waterway development are converging. The unresolved issue is whether policy and industry can turn that convergence into dependable consumer access. The developments to monitor are the implementation of PM Gati Shakti and Jalvahak, the expansion of functional waterways, the growth of initiatives such as Vallam Express and the emergence of measurable evidence on delivery cost, reliability and coverage in water-bound communities.
