Rivers for Development

It is very heartening to learn that the Government of India is investing Rs 3,000 crore in the development of National Waterway 2 (Brahmaputra), National Waterway 16 (Barak), and the India-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR) in the next couple of years in order to provide a major fillip to water transport in the Northeast. River routes were the most vital modes of communication in ancient times, and both our rivers, the Brahmaputra and Barak, were part of the Southern Silk Route, an ancient trade route that existed between southwestern China and India’s northeastern region through Myanmar. Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who holds the most important portfolio of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways in the central government, must be congratulated for having ensured that inland water transport in the Northeast, together with Bangladesh, gets a priority in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheme of things. While transportation of goods by the river route can make prices cheaper, it is also an eco-friendly mode because of less consumption of fuel and thus less pollution. Moreover, regular plying of vessels ensures that the riverbed remains low and navigable, one activity that is most important for the Brahmaputra in particular because of the high silt deposit in it due to excessive topsoil run-down from the mountains. With Sonowal at the helm of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, the Northeast in general and Assam in particular also stand to gain from various investments related to inland water transport in the region. As announced by Sonowal while speaking at the Inland Waterways Development Council meeting held in Kaziranga on Friday, his ministry was setting up the Regional Centre of Excellence in Dibrugarh, one that will be helpful to incubate an ecosystem to train and develop manpower for the inland water transport sector in the region and encourage innovations. Moreover, new tourist facilities are coming up at Biswanath Ghat, Neamatighat (Jorhat), Silghat, and Guijan (Tinsukia), which in turn will help promote tourism in those areas.