National Water Way-1 connects

The correct answer is A) Allahabad - Haldia. National Waterway-1 is the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly system, running about 1,620 km from Haldia to Allahabad (now Prayagraj). It was first declared under the National Waterways Act, 1985, and the 2016 Act now lists it as NW-1 in the broader network of 111 waterways. The name change to Prayagraj came in 2018, so the question's wording is still the standard one.

• B) Sadia - Dhubri is wrong. This is the Brahmaputra stretch, National Waterway-2.
• C) Kollam - Kottapuram is wrong. This is the West Coast Canal, National Waterway-3.
• D) Kakinada - Puducherry is wrong. This is the East Coast Canal and Godavari-Krishna system, National Waterway-4.

The core concept is the numbering of national waterways under the Inland Waterways Authority of India framework. For Mains, NW-1 is the natural case study for Jal Marg Vikas Project, multimodal terminals such as Varanasi, and the trade-offs between navigation, dredging and Ganga pollution.

Trap: candidates often mix up the NW numbers with the rivers, or pick the Brahmaputra route because it is the most famous waterway in the northeast. Remember that NW-1 is the Ganga and NW-2 is the Brahmaputra.