barak dredging
Photo: Shibashis Chakraborty

Barak valley in Assam is all set to find its place in the shipping map within April next year.

This was announced by Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping P Radhakrishnan in Silchar on Wednesday night.

The Union Minister while interacting with the media at the Circuit House in Silchar said that the dredging programme is almost 50 per cent done in the downstream of the river Barak and within April next year, the remaining work will be completed.

He also said that international ship communication will start in Barak river by April next year.

Photo: Shibashis Chakraborty

The Minister was in Silchar on a day long visit to the Barak valley.

He visited the sites and inspected the ongoing dredging work at Badarpur and Ranighat.

The Union Minister expressed his satisfaction on the on-going dredging work and said that the Central Government is very serious about taking Barak to the map of water communication.

It may be recalled that during the ‘Namami Barak’ festival, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also gave emphasis to complete the dredging work in due time.

The Central Minister also visited the massive erosion site of Barak bank at Harinagar in Katigora and stressed to on conducting the renovation work on war-footing.

The Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, S Laxmanan, local legislators Mihirkanti Shome, Kishore Nath, Amarchand Jain and senior government officials accompanied the Union Minister during his visit.