India encourages private shippers to use inland waterways via Bangladesh protocol route
The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has decided to come out with a contract worth Rs200 crore for dredging and maintenance of fairway of rivers up to the Indian side in the north-east region in a bid to encourage private shippers to use inland waterways via Bangladesh-India protocol route.
"The inland waterways authority has agreed to spend Rs200 crore for dredging and maintenance of fairway for three years in some pockets such as Pandu and Dhubri in the north-east region, where there are some bottlenecks for sailing of barges. This support is not part of a grant to Bangladesh for dredging in the India-Bangladesh protocol route," said Syama Prasad Mookherjee Port Chairman and IWAI Member Vinit Kumar, reports the PTI.
He also said the use of the India-Bangladesh protocol route is very successful for cargo movement to the northeast region of India and also to Bangladesh.
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IWAI seeks to maintain a minimum draft of 2.5 metres for smooth sailing of barges
"Now at any point in time, 100 barges are on our river channel. There are some bottlenecks in the NE (northeast) side which will be sorted out with the proposed dredging at Rs200 crore," Kumar said.
Kolkata port is also planning to deploy a dedicated floating crane for use in transloading activities for container cargo at West Bengal's Sagar and Sandhead. Kumar said the transloading activities will also help the movement of imported goods to the northeastern states.
"SMP, Kolkata is set to float a tender for a dedicated floating crane for container cargo. We already have two floating cranes that are used in dry bulk cargo transloading activities," he said. The volume of cargo handling is expected to reach 2.5 million tonnes this fiscal, he said.
