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- Mirror Special Report
River transit and cargo transportation via Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR) have nearly been trebled in 9 years. It benefits much India’s North East Region (NER).
19 new cross border river routes have also been opened in the period.
India’s Minister, of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, presented such a state of development on bilateral trade infrastructures.
“As Modi government has spent 1,040 crores Rupees here, there are 20 waterways in NER now, against one in 2014,” Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal,Sonowal said.
Cargo handled via IBPR has increased to 170 per cent in the period,,Sonowal told journalists in Delhi.
The river-routes connecting Bangladesh and India are greatly benefitting the Northeast Region (NER) of India.
The minister said that the Modi government sees now Northeast Region as the powerhouse of India’s cruise towards self-reliance.
Sonowal mentioned that the first Ship Repair facility, with an investment worth 208 crores Rupess, in NER is being developed through Hooghly-Cochin Shipyard at Pandu along River Brahmaputra.
He cited another major development in Cruise tourism in Brahmaputra. MV Ganga Vilas, completed the world’s longest river cruise route by travelling from Varanasi to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh. It covered around 3,200 km in 51 days.
India Bangladesh and their development partners in recent years are promoting multimodal routes to make cross border trades easy. They want reduction in costs also.
Fast and smooth connectivity is vital for facilitating trades and development of NE states. International organizations like ADB, World Bank and JICA of Japan are also helping development communication projects. They focus much on connecting Chittagong and other Bangladeshi seaports with NE states.
