MoPSW received vessel MV Lal Bahadur Shastri carrying a total of 200 MT of foodgrains for Food Corporation of India (FCI) as it completed the maiden pilot run from Patna to Pandu via Bangladesh. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is planning to run a fixed schedule sailing between National waterways (NW) NW1 and NW2 heralding a new age of inland water transport for Assam & the Northeast India. The vessel set sail from Patna -1 (river Ganga) and travelled 2,350 kilometres through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, and Hemnagar, as well as the Indo Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route through Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj, Chilmari, and National Waterway-2 through Dhubri and Jogighopa. The dignitaries applauded this positive start, which has the potential to revolutionise cargo transportation. Another vessel, MV Ram Prasad Bismil, with two barges, Kalpana Chawla and APJ Abdul Kalam, set sail from Haldia on February 17, 2022 and is currently en route to Pandu. The cargo vessel is carrying 1800 mt of Tata steel and has already arrived at the Bangladesh border at Dhubri. The Numaligarh Bio-ODC refinery’s (over Dimensional cargo, 252 MT) arrived in Silghat on February 15, 2022 via inland water transport via IBP from Haldia.
