The Brahmaputra (/ˌbrɑːməˈpuːtrə/), is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, India, and Bangladesh. It is the 9th largest river (drainage area is 712,035 km2 (274,918 sq mi)) in the world by discharge, and the 15th longest (3,969 km (2,466 mi)) according to the new findings.
A section of the Brahmaputra River having a length of 891 km between the Bangladesh border near Dhubri and Sadiya in Assam was designated as the National Waterway 2 (NW-2) in 1988. (National Waterway 1 (NW-1) being the Haldia to Varanasi (1390 Km) stretch of River Ganga with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank). The project would enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 DWT.) The incumbent NDA government which rules the country has envisioned the ambitious Sagarmala project to connect the country through coastal shipping and navigable inland waterways and embarked upon the nation wide waterways desilting and dredging program which enabled the union minister Nitin Gadkari to flag off 2 barges of 200-tonne capacity each carrying a total of 400 tonnes of cement from the Pandu Port to Dhubri Port in December 2017. The total distance covered was 255 km, resulting in reduction of 300 km of road travel and logistics costs.
The Union Minister of ports, shipping and waterways, Mr Sarbananda Sonowal, announced that work has begun on the Brahmaputra river dredging project to ensure safe transportation of cargo and passengers. Addressing the multi stakeholder talk titled “Brahmaputra River Conclave”, organized as part of Northeast festival in Guwahati, Sonowal shared the vision of linking northeast region within and to the rest of the nation by developing navigable and safe waterways. He added that this initiative will in turn help boost the economy of the northeast and further aid in its development.
The Union minister stated that the dredging of Brahmaputra is vital to smooth navigation of cargo and passengers through the river and that the work in this regard has already begun. He also emphasized on the need to develop other river resources of the nation so that the full potential of these regions can be tapped resulting in economic abundance. The dredging project in Brahmaputra is carried out as part of the “Transformation through transportation” programme aimed at developing national waterways.
Though the North-Eastern parts of India is blessed with bounty in terms of natural resources, harnessing it was always a difficult task because of the terrible state of roads and little to no means of transportation. With the completion of the dredging of Brahmaputra, entrepreneurs of Northeast will be able to access the waterways to connect to the Haldia port in West Bengal which is their gateway to global trade market and especially the Southeast Asian market.
The Act East Policy of the federal government will further propel and create a positive atmosphere for trade to prosper within the northeast area. The Rs. 250 crore project to dredge the Brahmaputra to access the Chittagong port in Bangladesh from the Haldia port of Bengal was announced in 2017 by Union Minister Mr Nitin Gadkari. The mission has since taken off after minor hiccups. The union minister stated that once the dredging project is successfully completed the river will be suitable for smooth transportation of cargo and people and can enhance the economic prosperity of the region.
