Guwahati: The pre-Partition-era water transport route between eastern Assam’s tea hub town Dibrugarh and Dhaka in Bangladesh was formally revived with the flagging of a vessel carrying 540 MT of methanol for Bangladesh o…

Guwahati: The pre-Partition-era water transport route between eastern Assam’s tea hub town Dibrugarh and Dhaka in Bangladesh was formally revived with the flagging of a vessel carrying 540 MT of methanol for Bangladesh on Monday.Transportation through the water route, which was used by the British for the export of tea, timber and coal through Kolkata, remained shut since the Partition in 1947. Although the route that passed through the erstwhile East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) was closed in 1947, an official in the Inland Waterways Transport Authority said the Brahmaputra river port at Dibrugarh was closed in 1956.DLB Patkai, a vessel carrying the methanol consignment, was flagged off by Union Minister of Shipping and Water Transport Sarbananda Sonowal from Bogibeel on Monday. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma virtually joined the flag-off event.”Our grandparents grew up hearing the steamer whistle at Dibrugarh ghat. For 70 years (when the ghat was closed), that whistle fell silent and the ships stopped coming,” Sonowal, who grew up in Dibrugarh, recalled. “Today, a ship leaves Dibrugarh for the world once again. The river never failed us. What it lacked for decades was the will to revive it.”Two held for ‘passing’ information to Pakistan on defence movements: Assam CM Himanta Biswa SarmaThe methanol, produced by state-owned Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd. (APCL), a PSU, at Namrup, is bound for Pangaon Port in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The vessel will travel about 768 kilometres down National Waterway-2 on the Brahmaputra river in India to the Indo-Bangladesh border, then continue along the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR). The vessel will cover a total distance of 1,300 km from Bogibeel, Dibrugarh, to Narayanganj, Dhaka.Sarma said Assam’s own product, made in Namrup, travelling to an international market on Assam’s own river was significant. “The Northeast is no longer a frontier. It is India’s gateway to the East.”Brahmaputra, a freight corridorOfficials said the voyage is being observed as a test of whether the Brahmaputra can serve as a commercially viable freight corridor linking the Northeast to overseas markets. Regular methanol shipments to Bangladesh are planned. The shipment became possible after customs and immigration complexes were set up at Bogibeel and Dhubri recently.”Dibrugarh, called the Tea Capital of India, is reclaiming the glory it once had as a great river port. We are building it with world-class infrastructure while honouring its heritage. The steamer whistle that fell silent in 1956 is heard again,” Sonowal said.Officials called it a significant development given the strained relationship between India and the present government in Bangladesh.Dibrugarh was once among the busiest river ports in eastern India. Government steamers reached the town from Calcutta, now Kolkata, by 1856. In 1882, the Dibru-Sadiya Railway began operating from the Dibrugarh steamer ghat. By 1913, steamers sailed up the Brahmaputra to the town daily, carrying tea, timber and passengers.The 1947 Partition cut that route, forcing Assam’s goods to pass through East Pakistan to reach Calcutta. A 1950 earthquake disturbed the riverbed at Dibrugarh. Regular bookings from Dibrugarh port stopped in 1954, and the ghat was closed on October 15, 1956, as tea shipments shifted to rail. The 1965 war between India and Pakistan suspended cross-border river trade.India and Bangladesh signed a river trade protocol in 1972. In 1988, the 891-kilometre stretch of the Brahmaputra river from Sadiya to Dhubri was declared National Waterway-2. Regular cargo service on the waterway did not begin until December 2017, when cement moved from Pandu in Guwahati to Dhubri in western Assam, sharing water and road borders with Bangladesh.Bangladesh seeks Sheikh Hasina’s extradition from India Sonowal said activity on the route has grown since then. Tata Steel barges reached Pandu through Bangladesh in February 2022, and the river cruise ship MV Ganga Vilas sailed from Varanasi to Dibrugarh through Bangladesh in 2023. The Bogibeel passenger and cargo terminal, whose foundation stone was laid in July 2023, opened in February 2024.According to Sonowal, cargo on India’s national waterways rose from 18 million metric tonnes in fiscal 2013-14 to 218 million metric tonnes in 2025-26. More than $770 million is being invested in waterways across the Northeast, including development of National Waterway-2, a ship repair facility at Pandu and last-mile connectivity to Pandu Port.”Every ton we move on the river means less fuel burnt and fewer trucks on the highway,” Sonowal said. He added that India is working with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar on regional waterway links.The voyage involved the Inland Waterways Authority of India, Assam Petro-Chemicals, Cochin Bunkers Pvt. Ltd. and partners in Bangladesh.

Source: Deccan Herald