The West Coast Canal connects the Bekal in the North to Kovalam in the South and is about 610 km in length. The West Coast Canal runs almost parallel to the sea and National Highway. A portion of the West Coast Canal, i.e., from Kottappuram to Kollam, is already declared as National waterway-3 in 1993. Later in 2016, the northern stretch of the National waterway has been further extended up to Kozhikode (160 km). Kottappuram- Kollam route is almost in the middle of the WCC system, based on that the WCC can be broadly divided into three sections namely Bekal to Kottappuram (348km), Kottapuram – Kollam (168 km), and Kollam-Kovalam ( 78 km) respectively. Also, 3 artificial canals have to be constructed between Mahe and Valapattanam rivers and 1 artificial canal has to be constructed between Neeleshwaram and Chithari rivers to establish waterway connectivity.