Bill in RS to declare Assam river stretch as National Waterway

Aiming at unified development of waterways for shipping, navigation and transportation of cargo to the northeastern region, a Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha today to declare a 121-km stretch of Barak river in Assam as National Waterway.
The National Waterway (Lakhipur-Bhanga Stretch of the Barak River) Bill, 2013 was introduced by Shipping Minister G K Vasan and upon enactment would particularly benefit Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh by facilitating cargo movement there.
"Infrastructure facilities currently available on this waterway are not adequate for safe, convenient and sustained shipping and navigation by large mechanised craft," the statement of objects and reasons said.

It said the regulation and development of the proposed waterway "is in the public interest" and would provide "safe, convenient and sustained shipping."
As per estimates, traffic to the tune of 12.45 lakh tonnes is likely to be carried on the proposed waterways after its full development by 2018-19.
"The traffic is expected to be handled at four terminals, namely Lakhipur, Karimganj, Silchar and Badarpur," the financial memorandum in the Bill said adding, work on the stretch include channel making, construction of tunnels, transit sheds and installation of handling equipment.

"The expenditure in respect of the said development will be of the order of Rs 123.30 crore at 2012 prices. This expenditure will be of a non-recurring nature," it said.

Besides, it said that an expenditure of Rs 3.6 crore per annum would be incurred for maintenance of navigation aids, terminals and dredging.
The projects would be implemented in two phases by Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) set up under IWAI Act, 1985.