In line with the Government’s vision of promoting Inland Waterways, India inaugurated the first of its kind movement where an Indian inland waterways is being used for connecting two countries – landlocked Bhutan and Bangladesh.
On 12 July, Minister of State for Shipping Shri Mansukh Mandaviya will flag off an inland waterways vessel containing cargo from Bhutan to Bangladesh via River Brahmaputra and the Indo Bangla Protocol Route.
1000 Metric Ton of crushed stone aggregates will sail on Inland Waterways Authority of India’s (IWAI) vessel ‘AAI’, from Dhubri port in Assam, to Narayanganj in Bangladesh, through this route.
This movement is expected to inspire confidence among the Bhutanese exporters to increasingly shift to waterways mode and increase the trade of stone aggregates and other cargo between Bhutan and Bangladesh through India’s inland waterways,
…an official statement by the Ministry reads.
Bhutan has been exporting significant quantity of stone aggregates through the land route for different construction projects in Bangladesh.
The exports through Inland Waterways mode will serve as an alternate mode of transportation which is cheaper and more environment friendly, while it is expected to ease congestion on land routes.
While this consignment is being transported in one single barge through Inland Waterways, by road it would have taken 50 trucks of 20 Metric Ton capacity to carry the same volume of cargo, according to the Indian Ministry of Shipping.
