Goods from Patna reach Assam by new waterway between Ganga-Brahmaputra via Bangladesh: IWAI
Guwahati: The first vessel carrying 200 MT of food grains for Food Corporation of India (FCI) reached Pandu in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district, heralding a new age of inland water transport, said A Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).
Union Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, MP Queen Oja, and IWAI Chairman Sanjay Bandopadhyay, welcomed the self-propelled first vessel MV Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The first of the four cargo ships carrying food grains from Bihar’s Patna reached at Assam’s Pandu on Sunday. This is the new linking waterway between Brahmaputra River national waterway-two with the Ganga, national waterway-one, via Bangladesh, said officials.
From Patna, the vessel passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar, the India-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR) through Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj, and Chilmari, and the National Waterway-2 through Dhubri, and Jogighopa covering a distance of 2,350 kms.
The second vessel, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, carrying 1,800 MT steel started from Haldia on February 17th and has already reached the Bangladesh border at Dhubri. IWAI is planning to run a fixed schedule sailing between NW-1 and NW-2 heralding a new age of inland water transport for Assam and the northeast region of India, said in an official statement.
Assam Chief Minister Sarma said that the start of cargo movement through ships via IBPR marks the beginning of a new age of economic prosperity for the entire northeast region. Today marks the beginning of a new age of inland water transport in Assam. This is going to provide the business community a viable, economic and ecological alternative, said Union Minister. The seamless cargo transportation is a journey of unfulfilled desires and aspirations of the people of Assam.
The sustained effort to rejuvenate the historical trade routes via Bangladesh got a fillip under PM Gati Shakti, he said. The statement said that the protocol on Inland water transit and Trade (PIWTT) between India and Bangladesh will be optimally beneficial when we can unlock the value from the cargo trade in the region.