Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Inland Waterways Authority of India, under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, has identified works worth approximately Rs 5,000 crore for development of Inland Water Transport infrastructure in North Eastern Region during 2025-2030. Moreover, the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships has been entrusted with the work of construction of lighthouses along National Waterways-2, i.e., the Brahmaputra River by April 2026.
This was stated today in the Lok Sabha by Minister of Ports, Shipping and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal in reply to an unstarred question of Assam Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi.
In his question, MP Pradyut Bordoloi wanted to know (a) the details of the utilisation and unused funds from the Rs 5,000 crore investment that was pledged on July 7, 2025 for the development of inland waterways and maritime infrastructure in the North Eastern Region (NER) under existing Government schemes, (b) the current state of all-weather fairway dredging, permanent cargo terminals at Pandu, Jogighopa, Dhubri, Bogibeel, Karimganj and Badarpur, tourist jetties at Dibrugarh, Silghat, Biswanath Ghat, Neamati and Guijan and lighthouses at Bogibeel, Biswanath Ghat, Silghat and Pandu including contractors hired and anticipated timelines of their completion; and (c) the details of the 50,000 North East youths who are being trained and placed under the Maritime Skill Development Centres (Guwahati) and Centre of Excellence (Dibrugarh) along with the number of youths who have received training so far and are employed in the maritime industry and those remaining in the pipeline?
In his written reply to the question, Sonowal stated (a) The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW), has identified works worth approximately Rs 5,000 crore for development of Inland Water Transport (IWT) infrastructure in North Eastern Region (NER) during 2025-2030. Out of Rs 5000 crore, currently, the works amounting to Rs.975 crore are at various stages of implementation. For implementation of the other projects, Feasibility Study Report (FSR)/Detailed Project Report (DPR) is being prepared by IWAI.
(b) The dredging work for assured depth of 2.5m in the navigational channel for the stretch between Bangladesh Border to Pandu (Guwahati) in National Waterway (NW-2) and dredging work for maintenance of assured depth of 2.0m in the stretch between Bhanga and Badarpur in NW-16 (Barak River), have been assigned to Dredging Corporation of India (DCI). In other parts of NW-2 and NW-16, IWAI is maintaining fairway with departmental dredgers and river conservancy works. Cargo terminals at Pandu and Dhubri are already operational. The new terminals at Jogighopa and Bogibeel have been completed. Karimganj and Badarpur terminals have been upgraded. DPR's for new tourist jetties at Silghat, Biswanath, Neamati and Guijan have been prepared by M/s Indian Port Rail & Ropeway Corporation Ltd. (IPRCL). Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) has been entrusted the work of construction of Lighthouses along NW-2 by April 2026.
(c) IWAI has developed Maritime Skill Development Centre (MSDC) at Guwahati for training and capacity building in maritime sector in the NER with faculty from National Inland Navigation Institute (NINI), Patna. So far, 635 Inland Vessel crew members have been given training in accordance with Inland Vessels Act, 2021. The trained crews are engaged in IWT sector. Also, other training courses have been identified for development with the support of industry experts to enhance the skills of Industrial Training Institute (ITI) students in maritime field.
Further, a Regional Centre of Excellence (RCoE) at Bogibeel (Dibrugarh) for the aspirants of NER is at the proposal stage and IWAI has prepared the DPR through M/s Indian Port Rail & Ropeway Corporation Ltd. (IPRCL).
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