NEW DELHI: Amazon will soon ship customer packages in India through inland waterways as it looks to tap into cost-efficient and sustainable means of transportation for making deliveries.

To this end, the e-commerce major on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).“The premise of inland waterways is to be able to reduce the cost of transportation and reduce the impact on the environment as it is lot more sustainable as a solution than road or rail.How do you make it a viable alternative not just for bulk carriage but also time-sensitive deliveries…that’s what this MoU is aimed at.

A developed water network is the cheapest mode of transportation.

This will also benefit the cost of Amazon as a company,” Abhinav Singh, vice-president, operations atAmazon India told TOI.As part of the partnership, the company will soon initiate a pilot run on Patna to Kolkata waterways with the support of IWAI and its carriers.

Singh said that the use of inland waterways will enable the company to make deliveries in water-locked areas which otherwise are difficult to access.

“Shipping can be used to deliver in areas like Assam’s Majuli Islands or a place like Andaman - Nicobar Island during times when air connectivity to the area may be disrupted,” Singh said.

“A supply chain is a combination of where you deploy the inventory and how you transport it post you deployed it.

Water can be a very big enabler in helping usforward deploy (deploy inventory in the area from before based on general consumer preferences) inventory in a very cost efficient way,” Singh added.The collaboration with IWAI builds on Amazon’s existing logistics partnerships with the Indian Railways and India Post.