National Waterway 4 (NW-4) is a long waterway in India. It has been declared as an Indian National Waterway and is currently under development. It connects the Indian states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and the union territory of Puducherry. The NW-4 runs along the Coromandal Coast through Kakinada, Eluru, Commanur, Buckingham Canals and also through part of Krishna and Godavari rivers in South India. It was declared a National Waterway on 24 November 2008 under the Provisions of National Waterways Bill, 2006. It is being developed by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), and was scheduled for completion by 2013. The National Waterways Act, 2016 has extended the length of NW-4 from to by connecting the Krishna and Godavari Rivers. The Project would be undertaken in 3 phases with first phase beginning in October, 2017 and to be completed by June, 2019 History National waterways in India In India, the national waterways are developed by the central government through the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) – the regulatory body for the Inland Waterways Transport (IWT) sector. IWAI was set up by the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act in 1985 and given responsibility of development, maintenance, and regulation of national waterways in the country. It is a statutory autonomous body for regulating and developing navigation and shipping in the inland waterways. Along with IWAI, Central Inland Water Transport Corporation (CIWTC) also supports the IWT sector through transportation of cargo via inland waterways and the operation and maintenance of the vessels and waterway terminals. The first national waterways established in India were the NW-1,2 & 3 (est. in mid 1980s & 1993). They have a combined length of . Development of NW-4, 5 & 6 As early as 1993–95, IWAI commenced studies for developing an integrated canal linking Kakinada and Chennai. The Indian government initiated the process for developing three more national waterways in 2005. In July 2006, T. R. Baalu, the Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways announced the proposal for development of NW-4 in the Lok Sabha. In addition to the three existing national waterways, the government also declared the following inland waterways as national waterways: NW-4: Kakinada-Pondicherry canals along with Godavari and Krishna rivers () NW-5: East Coast Canal along with Brahmani river and Mahanadi delta () NW-6: River Barak () The proposals were made into law with the passage of The Inland