Move to declare stretch of Barak river as national waterway

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the introduction of a Bill in the Parliament for declaring 121 km stretch from Lakhipur-Bhanga of the river Barak, in south Assam, as a National Waterway.

The enactment to declare Lakhipur-Bhanga stretch of Barak river as National Waterway is expected to result in unified development of the waterways for shipping and navigation and transportation of cargo to the North Eastern region, particularly in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

The Union cabinet also gave its approval for preparation of projects and schemes for development of infrastructure facilities on this stretch of the river at an estimated cost of Rs 123 crore with implementation in two phases. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) will be the implementing agency for this project. The first phase of the project would be completed by 2016-17 followed by the second phase which is likely to be completed by 2018-19.

 

The Centre has so far declared five waterways as National Waterways. These are Allahabad-Haldia stretch of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system, Dhubri-Sadiya stretch of BrahmaputrarRiver, Kottapuram-Kollam stretch of West Coast canal along with Udyogmandal and Champakara canals, Kakinada-Puducherry stretch of the canal along with designated stretches of Godavari and Krishna rivers (1078 km), designated stretches of East Coast Canal, Brahmani river and Mahanadi Delta.

The Lakhipur-Bhanga stretch of the Barak River would be the sixth National Waterway.