Two freight ships loaded with 1,233 tonnes of bagged fly ash travelled from Kahalgaon in Bihar to Pandu in Guwahati covering a distance of 2085 km and reached Guwahati on Monday morning.
This journey was undertaken to raise hopes for revival of water transport that ended after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
This historical voyage proves that the Ganga and Brahmaputra, also known as National Waterway 1 and National Waterway 2 respectively are suitable for transportation of ships carrying around 1500 to 2000 tonnes of freight through the India-Bangladesh Protocol Route.
This voyage started after the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) approved a cement firm of Sonapur for using waterways for procuring fly ash.
The fly ash bags from NTPC’s plant were loaded on two freight ships at Kahalgaon on August 30 and they crossed Bangladesh on September 11 and reached Assam on September 26, reports The Hindu.
The ships faced difficulties in Bangladesh because of heavy river currents from Chandpur to Baluchar and several disputes with fishermen in fishing boats at Bangladesh but nevertheless, the voyage had been a good one.
According to past reports, 10 such successful waterway transport projects have been completed on different national waterways.
