River navigation along the Calcutta-Haldia and Karimganj river routes

Silchar, Dec. 25: The Bangladesh government has finally agreed to India’s demand for joint dredging by the two countries to facilitate river navigation along the Calcutta-Haldia and Karimganj river routes, clearing the decks for the exercise.

This was stated last evening by the secretary in the ministry of shipping, A.P.V.N. Sarma, while inaugurating a state-of-the-art Rs 3.68-crore jetty on the Barak river at Badarpur port in Karimganj district.

Sources in the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation Ltd said a blueprint of the dredging scheme, including the ticklish issue of cost sharing, would soon be prepared by both the governments under the aegis of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint River Commission (IBJRC).

Sarma pointed out that if dredging was undertaken, navigation on the rivers between Haldia and South Assam river ports and between Calcutta and South Assam river ports would improve.
This will facilitate transportation of key items between the Northeast and the mainland as well as between Bangladesh and Northeast India.

The main impediment to river traffic all year round between West Bengal and South Assam (through Bangladesh) is poor river conservancy on the Meghna and Surma in the neighbouring country and heavy boulders on the Meghna at Ashuganj in Comilla district of Bangladesh.

At present, cargo vessels from Calcutta and Haldia ports are diverted through Bangladesh to enter the Barak and offload goods at Karimganj. But that is done only from May and October as lack of proper river maintenance and conservancy chores in Bangladesh rivers pose navigation hazards during the winter and early summer seasons.

With the inauguration of the river jetty in Badarpur, 25km west of here, steamers from the Calcutta-Haldia end, which after negotiating the Bangladesh territorial waterways, now move to Karimganj port for offloading, can now sail downstream on the Barak, the second biggest river in the Northeast, to Badarpur. source: the telegraph india