The Hindu Business Line : National Waterway tag for Barak

The 121-km long Bhanga-Lakhipur stretch of the Barak river in the lower reaches of Assam is to be declared National Waterway Number 6 shortly. A Bill on this has been placed before Parliament. Once the Bill is passed and the Union Government has made the necessary notifications, the work will start. The work will presuppose, among others, dredging and construction of terminals. But dredging poses a problem. The river also passes through Bangladesh, and the Karimganj termin al on the Indian side of the river is virtually on the Bangladesh border.

On one side of the river is Bangladesh with India on the other. The Union Government, therefore, plans to take up the issue of dredging jointly with Bangladesh as it will benefit both countries. There are four points along the river — Karimganj, Badarpur, Silchar and Lakhipur — where terminals can be constructed. The Central Inland Water Transport Corporation (CIWTC) has constructed terminals at Karimganj and Badarpur. CIWTC, it is learnt, is also prepared to construct the other terminals provided funds are made available. CIWTC introduced the Kolkata-Karimganj river service in 2006 after a gap of more than 30 years and has handled in three years 15,000 tonnes of cargo on the route.

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