Nitin Gadkari to flag off cargo movement on Brahmaputra

GUWAHATI: In a move to give boost to inland water transport sector in Northeast, Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari will flag off regular cargo movement on Brahmaputra from Assam's Majuli on Friday.
The 891 KM length of Brahmaputra from Sadiya in the easternmost part of upper Assam to Dhubri was declared as the National Waterway-2 in 1988.

Two barges of 200 metric ton capacity each carrying 400 ton of cement from the Inland Water Authority of India (IWAI) 's Pandu Port here to Dhubri in western Assam will be flagged off in presence of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal under the Sagarmala flagship programme of the ministry of shipping.

Gadkari will also lay the foundation stone for bank protection works for Majuli island on Friday.

The two barges will cover a distance of 255 kilometers under the Sagarmala flagship programme of the ministry.
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Transportation of cargo through NW 2 from Pandu to Dhubri will help save 150,000 tonne km of road transportation per trip and 300 Km of road travel while reducing the logistics costs, IWAI officials said.

IWAI will charge Rs 318 per ton as waterway transportation charges from Pandu to encourage entrepreneurs and logistic operators to shift to inland waterway

"IWAI is working closely with major cement companies to use NW2 route. They have shown interest on cargo movement through waterways. Efforts are on to get other cargo owners to shift their transportation to waterways as this can be a key enabler for reduction of logistics cost and open up more business & employment opportunities," an IWAI official said.

The ministry of shipping has been working to connect northeast to Kolkata, Haldia and Bangladesh's Mongla and Chittagong ports.

The NW2 is being developed for commercial navigation with Pandu port here as a multi-modal modern Inland Water Transport Terminal, equipped with cargo handling facilities, transit sheds among other facilities.

Also differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) stations have been provided at Dhubri, Jogighopa, Biswanthghat and Dibrugarh for safe navigation of vessels with electronic charts.

"There has been a renewed focus in the last three years to promote IWT in Northeast. Of the 106 new National Waterways that were notified in April 2016, 19 are in NER," IWAI official said.