PATNA, June 17 -- Union minister for ports, shipping and waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday announced that the central government would initiate steps to develop water metro service in the river Ganga for Patna. Sonowal said this while addressing a 'consultative workshop on inland water transport development on the national waterways (NW-1 in Ganga)' organised by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) in Patna. Deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary and other ministers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal along with senior officials of the Bihar and Central governments participated in the workshop. The demand for development of water metro in Patna was piloted by Samrat Choudhary, during whose stint as urban development minister, the Bihar government had mooted a similar plan. Sonowal said that a task force of experts from the Union ministry of shipping and waterways, Inland Waterways Authority of India and the Bihar government would be set up to suggest the projects for development of waterways in the state. It is said that the central ministry would prepare the feasibility report for launching the water metro project in Patna. The task force will also prepare a plan for development of an integrated network of waterways connecting other rivers. Responding to suggestions made from the participants, the Union minister said that Patna would be developed as a hub of water transport between Varanasi and Haldiya, which is 1390-km-long. Besides, 16 additional community jetties would be set up in Bihar in coming months. Citing steps undertaken by the Central government to develop waterways in Bihar, Sonowal said the ministry is also looking to launch waterways transport to Nepal via Bihar and added that the government has spent Rs.6,000 crore on development of waterways, cargo handling facilities. "There has been 700% growth in water transport, passengers' movement and river course development as compared to those during the UPA government," said the minister, adding that a ship repairing and manufacturing unit will also be set up in Patna. Earlier, Dy CM Samrat Choudhary said that Patna water metro would prove to be a milestone in the direction of water transport. He also urged the Central minister to build two jetties in each of the 11 districts of Bihar through which river Ganga passes to ensure that river transport is wide and all-reaching. He also demanded the construction of a multimodal terminal in Bhagalpur. The deputy CM said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continuously been helping Bihar to manage its water resources by way of developing irrigation facilities and managing floods. "The Nitish government has done so much work on flood control that now even if 6 lakh cusecs of water comes from Nepal, there is no severe flood, rather only 100 villages are affected," added Choudhary. Union minister Giriraj Singh, Patna Sahib MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, state transport minister Sheela Kumar, chairman of IWAI Vijay Kumar, chief secretary of Bihar Amrit Lal Meena and other senior officers were also present during the event....