भारतीय अंतर्देशीय जलमार्ग प्राधिकरण
NW-2 is the most important waterway in North East Region of India. It also provides connectivity with mainland India through Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route, thereby reducing congestion on the Siliguri Corridor (the only direct corridor connecting mainland India with North east). The waterway is operational with permanent jetties at two locations viz. Pandu & Dhubri and floating jetties at eleven locations viz. Hatsingimari, Jogighopa, Pandu, Tezpur, Silghat, Biswanathghat, Neamati, Bogibeel, Sengajan, Dibrugarh and Oriumghat. Pandu, being a multimodal terminal, is connected with Broad Gauge Railway line. For development and maintenance of fairway (navigation channel), IWAI undertakes river conservancy measures namely, dredging and bandalling during non-monsoon months of October/ November to March/ April every year.
Pandu Port Dhubri Port
Fairway of 45 m width with 2.5 m least available depth (LAD) is maintained between Dhubri & Neamati (630 Km), 2.0 m between Neamati & Bogibeel (100 Km) and 1.5 m between Bogibeel & Sadiya (161 km).
Currently, around 6 lakh tonne (Appx.) of cargo is moved on NW-2 annually consisting of building materials, food grains, fertilisers and over-dimensional cargo. Scheduled cargo movement between Pandu and Dhubri has been effective since December 2017. There has been keen interest from various industries to use NW-2 to transport their cargo for reducing overall logistics cost. Industries such as M/s STAR Cement, M/s Dalmia Cement are already utilizing NW2 for cargo movement. Besides cargo operations, passenger ferry services are operational by the State Government as well as by private operators on numerous locations. IWAI also runs a Ro-Ro ferry service between Dhubri & Hatsingimari through its newly built Ro-Ro vessel M.V. Gopinath Bordoloi since July 2017.Besides ongoing cargo operations, regular cruise services are operational between Pandu & Neamati.
Flagging of Cargo Movement at Pandu Cargo Vessel Plying on NW-2 Ro-Ro Vessel Plying on NW-2
Considering the huge potential of NW-2, following projects are also being implemented by IWAI on NW-2:
- Ro-Ro terminals between Neamati & Kamlabari to reduce travel length of 410 km by Road (via Tezpur Bridge) to 12.7 km through waterways.
- First of a kind ship repairing facility at Pandu.
- Construction of alternate road from Pandu Port to NH-27.
- Development of IWT Terminal at MMLP Jogighopa, Assam.
- Construction of cargo terminal at Bogibeel.
- IWAI is also procuring 2 self-propelled cutter suction dredgers, 4 Ro-Pax vessels & 2 Ro-Ro vessels for operations on NW2.