The rivers of India can be classified into the following four groups:

• The Himalayan Rivers, which are formed by melting snow and glaciers and therefore have a continuous flow throughout the year. As this region receives very heavy rainfall during the monsoon period, the rivers swell and cause frequent floods
• The rivers of the Deccan plateau, which are rain fed and fluctuate in volume, many of them being non-perennial;
• The coastal rivers, which, especially on the west coast, are short in length with limited catchment areas, most of them being non-perennial;
• The rivers of the inland drainage basin in western Rajasthan, which are ephemeral, drain towards the silt lakes such as Sambhar, or are lost in the sands.
The main rivers of the Himalayan group are the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra. Himalayan rivers discharge about 70% of their inflow into the sea. The use of water resources in India has basically been in the field of irrigation and power generation. After China and the USA India has the highest number of dams.

It has a total of 4291 dams, which constitute about 9% of the dams worldwide. Being an agricultural country, the immediate problem before the government after independence was to save the Indian farmer from the vagaries of the monsoons, which could fail any season. In fact the first public corporation of India was the Damodar Valley Corporation. Sadly the waterways that India has so abundantly been blessed with are still underutilized. All the burden of passenger and goods transportation has been burdened on the Indian Railways and the Roadways. In every country the waterways have served greatly at transportation, because of cheap costs and environment friendly issues. The good news however is that the government has realized its mistake and is taking up to develop ferry and goods services along the major rivers. The project comes under a soon to be launched mega project called the Sagarmala. This scheme also includes improvement in the oceanic sector.

India is surrounded by the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean on three sides. Therefore it has a long coastline accessible through the oceans. In fact it was this factor that has tremendously influenced the fate of this country in terms of trade and later foreign occupation. India has 12 major and 184 other (minor and intermediate) ports. The major ports are Chennai, Cochin, Ennore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kandla, Kolkata, Mormugao, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Paradip, Tutocorin and Vishakhapatnam. While the major ports are governed by the Major Ports Trust Act and are under the control of the Central Government, State Governments administer the minor ports.

As of now there are no luxury cruise services from Indian shores. One has to go to neighboring countries like Singapore. The famous group of 'Star Cruises' is in talks with the government and may soon start luxury cruises from India. However there are other cruise services on boats and ships along the coastal areas and in the northeastern states. Some of the cruise services available are listed below.

Cruises
1. Nagarjunasagar
2. Cochin to Lakshadweep
3. Calcutta to Andaman & Nicobar
4. Chennai to Andaman & Nicobar
5. Vishakhapatnam to Andaman & Nicobar
6. Mumbai to Goa


Click here to See Sea Ports of India