Northeast To Benefit From 4000 Km Inland Waterways: Mandaviya

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Northeast To Benefit From 4000 Km Inland Waterways: Mandaviya

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Mansukh Mandaviya said that the central government is developing 4,000 kilometres of inland waterways to ensure smooth transportation in Northeast India. “The government of India is developing a total of 4000 km of inland waterways for motor transportation so that there can be smooth transportation and Northeast India including Tripura will largely be benefited out of it including the farmers producing organic produce,” he said. The Union Minister said that the floating jetty over river Gomati at Sonamur in Tripura will have a permanent terminal within this year and fund allocation has already been made in the budget. He further added that through the inland waterways, Sonamura (by the river Gomati) will be connected to river Yamuna in Bangladesh and from there through the Haldia port (West Bengal) up to Banaras which is at a distance of 1400 km from there. The 90 km long waterways protocol route connecting Sonamura in India and Daudkandi in Bangladesh was included in the list of Indo-Bangla protocol (IBP) routes in May last year became operational on September 5 last year when Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb received the first vessel at Sonamura port. The Union Minister also informed that India and Bangladesh are jointly developing the protocol route and at an expenditure ratio of 80:20 respectively.