India declares Yamuna National Waterway-110 under the National Waterways Act

In March 2016, India's Parliament passed the National Waterways Act, 2016, which was enacted that month. It declared 111 waterways across the country as national waterways, bringing them under the central government instead of leaving them solely to individual states. Among them was the Yamuna, listed as National Waterway-110.

The law replaced the earlier National Waterways Acts, which had covered only a handful of routes, such as the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and a stretch of the west coast canal in Kerala. Responsibility for developing and regulating the new waterways went to the Inland Waterways Authority of India, the federal body that manages river transport.

The aim was to promote inland water transport as a cheaper and cleaner alternative to road and rail for moving cargo and passengers. Many of the newly listed rivers needed surveys and dredging before any vessels could use them, so progress varied widely.

For the Yamuna, the designation created a legal basis for navigation projects on a river that flows through Delhi. It is the framework behind later proposals for boats and cruises on the river.