Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday told Rajya Sabha that Pandu Port, Guwahati, is being developed as Hub of Inland Shipping in North East India.
Pandu Port, Guwahati is the most important location on National Waterways (NW-2) (river Brahmaputra), and accordingly, Government established a Multi-Modal river port at Pandu.
The government has approved a project for the development of NW-2 at a cost of Rs. 461 cr during 2020-21 to 2024-25. Establishment of a ship repair facility at Pandu at a cost of Rs. 72.6 cr is one of the major components of the project.
The development of a Ship repair facility at Pandu is beneficial since North Eastern Region (NER) does not have any vessel repair facility with dry-docking. At present, the vessels in the NER are taken to Kolkata through Bangladesh for dry dock repair.
Multi-Modal Terminal at Pandu Port, Guwahati
Pandu (Guwahati) is the most important location on NW-2 for the development of a multimodal river port.
A master plan was therefore prepared for phased development of terminal at Pandu and development was carried out accordingly.
A low-level jetty at a cost of 40.02 crores was made operational in 2009. A high-level jetty at a cost of 43.89 crores was also made operational during 2014-15 for round the year operation with a mechanical handing facility including containers.
A broad-gauge railway siding connecting Pandu port to Kamakhya railway station (Guwahati) has been constructed through NF Railway at a cost of 16.46 crore and opened for commercial operation by NF Railway in 2013.
IWAI has signed the Agreement with NF Railway for using the BG Siding for movement of Cargo by a third party.
Revision of Levy & Collection of Fees
Taking ahead the vision of the Government of India to promote Inland Waterways as a supplementary mode of transport, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has considered a waiver of waterway user charges initially for a period of three years.
Addition of new Ports of Call and routes in India and Bangladesh
With 7 new ports of call in addition to the existing 6 on each side along with addition/ extension of 2 waterway routes in addition to the existing 8 routes under PIWT&T between India and Bangladesh, the accessibility of IWT mode for trade between India and Bangladesh is expected to increase and result in the growth of traffic on NWs.
Trade between Bhutan and Bangladesh
Stone exporters from Bhutan have identified Inland waterways as an alternate mode of transportation considering the benefits associated with waterways mode such as lower transportation cost, larger shipment size compared to road, avoiding congestion on land routes, etc.
The first movement under the supervision of IWAI was successfully executed in July 2019. This trade using the IWT mode is expected to continue and reach a significant scale in the coming years.