IMPROVEMENT OF BRAHMAPUTRA AND BARAK RIVER

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RAJYA SABHA

River Brahmaputra (Dhubri to Sadiya) has been declared as a National Waterway and various development works such as river conservancy, day channel marking, conduct of Thalweg surveys, issue of river notices, floating terminals at Dhubri, Jogighopa and Pandu, have been undertaken. Further, construction of a permanent terminal at Pandu has been undertaken and action has been initiated for providing night navigation facilities in a phased manner. As regards River Barak, the same has not been declared as a National Waterway. This was stated by Shri Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi, Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping in a written reply to Dr. Arun Kumar Sarma in Rajya Sabha today.

In reply to another question the Minister said that one hydraulic surface dredger was deployed on NW-II in February 2002. It did trial dredging during 2001-02 and dredging for clearing shoals between Dhubri and Pandu during 2002-03. The other dredger is under construction and hence not deployed.