Food and beverages major PepsiCo India on Monday said it has become the first company to use the country’s inland waterways for container movement by transporting products from its plant in Kolkata to Varanasi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first multi-modal terminal on the Ganga river in his parliamentary constituency at Varanasi and received the country’s first container cargo transported on inland waterways from Kolkata.

Commenting on the development, PepsiCo India President and CEO Ahmed El-Sheikh, who was present on the occasion, said: “This is a significant milestone in the development of the inland waterways and we believe this can be a huge enabler for the consumer goods industry.”

The consignment had set sail from Kolkata in the last week of October.

PepsiCo India had shipped 16 containers, equivalent to 16 truckloads of products, as part of the pilot project on National Waterway 1.

These products, made at PepsiCo India’s snacks plant in Kolkata, would be further distributed to various markets from Varanasi, the company added.