The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India achieved a landmark when the MV Ram Prasad Bismil became the longest vessel ever to sail on the Brahmaputra.
The 90 meters long flotilla is 26 meters wide, loaded with a draft of 2.1 meters. With this, it successfully completed the aspiring pilot run of heavy cargo movement from Haldia Dock in Kolkata after it anchored at Pandu port here in Guwahati today.
The vessel along with two barges – DB Kalpana Chawla and DB APJ Abdul Kalam – were flagged off from the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Haldia by the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (PSW) and AYUSH, Sarbananda Sonowal flagged them off on 16 February 2022.
The significance of this pilot run lays down the path for commencement of barging operation from Kolkata to Guwahati via Indo Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBRP).
The Government of India along with the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh funded the dredging of this stretch – with 80:20 ratios respectively – for seamless navigation. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) as well as Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) worked together so that this historic cargo movement can move smoothly.
To revive and rejuvenate the vision of ‘Transformation through Transportation,’ the government took the onus of dredging and makes the conduit a safe and smooth sail for vessels. The Union Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, closely followed all developments and personally monitored the dredging work done by IWAI at various areas in this stretch so that the movement between NW1b and NW2 can start on a priority basis.
Speaking from Delhi, the Union Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal said, “The vision of our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji is to energize the Ashtalakshmi potential of Northeast to power the growth engine of India. Under his vision of ‘Transformation through Transportation,’ we worked tirelessly to rejuvenate the water transport in the region. This is not only the cheapest & ecologically most adapt the mode of transportation, it also allows the long-awaited connect for the business of Northeast through the marine network with the rest of the world….”
It is to be noted that earlier MV Lal Bahadur Shastri carried a consignment of 200 MT foodgrains for Food Corporation of India (FCI) from Patna to Pandu, successfully completing the Pilot Movement cargo between Ganga, the National Waterway 1 (NW1), and Brahmaputra, the National Waterway 2 (NW2). In addition to this, an Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC) for Numaligarh Refinery was also transported via IBPR further onto NW2 earlier.