A month after setting sail on the Ganga from Patna, the MV Lal Bahadur Shastri carrying 200 metric tonnes of food grains for the (Fci), docked at Guwahatis Pandu port on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra on March 6. The occasion is believed to have taken inland water transport, on two of Indias largest river systems, to the future.
Around Independence, Assams per capita income was the highest in the country primarily because of access for its tea, timber, coal and oil industries to seaports on the Bay of Bengal via the Brahmaputra and the Barak River (southern Assam) systems. Ferry Services continued sporadically after 1947 but stopped after the 1965 war with Pakistan, as Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan then.
India has invested 80% of 305.84 crore to improve the navigability of the two stretches of the IBP (Indo-Bangladesh Protocol) routes Sirajganj-Daikhowa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj in Bangladesh.
The seven-year dredging project on these two stretches till 2026 is expected to yield seamless Navigation to the north-eastern region.
The Government has also undertaken the Jal Marg Vikas project with an Investment of 4,600-crore to augment the capacity of NW1 for sustainable movement of vessels weighing up to 2,000 tonnes.