A new Indo-Bangla waterway route connecting Tripura's Gomati river with the neighbouring country's Meghna river would be discussed at the foreign secretary-level talks to be held in October, a senior state government official said here on Monday.
"Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb is keen to operationalise the new waterway project at the earliest as it could be a game changer in the state's communication system. The issue would be discussed in the foreign secretary level talks to be held in Dhaka in October," Tripura Transport department, principal secretary, L Darlong told PTI.
The proposed new waterway route will connect Tripura's Gomati river with Meghna river of Bangladesh to get access to Ashuganj port of the neighbouring country.
Presently ships and steamers ply from Haldia in West Bengal to Dawodkandi in Bangladesh, which is only 80 km from Tripura's Sonamura sub-division in Sepahijala district.
"The Tripura government has requested the Central government to prepone the foreign secretary level meeting so that the issue is discussed soon," Darlong told PTI.
At a meeting of the Planning department recently, the chief minister was briefed about the report of the joint technical committee finding on the 15-km proposed inland waterway project, the Transport secretary said.
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The report suggested dredging of a 15-km stretch to operationalise the proposed Indo-Bangla waterway.
"Of the 15 km, around 13 km need to be dredged on the Bangladesh side and the rest on the Indian side to allow small and medium sized vessels to ply," the official said.
The report of the joint technical committee was based on the hydrographic study carried out on March 12 and 13, Darlong said.
The chief minister has asked the Transport department to hold a meeting with the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) to give a push to the ambitious waterway project, he said.
The principal secretary said, he will take up the issue with the IWAI to get the project cleared "as early as possible".
"Since the state has limited resources, the Centre must come forward to incur the expenditure to undertake the dredging," he said.
A technical committee of the Ministry of Shipping had visited Srimantapur area of Sepahijala district just before the Lok Sabha elections, to see the ground reality.
The state government wants construction of a jetty at Srimantapur Land Customs Station (LCS) to handle business through the proposed waterway project.
The cost of the proposed waterway is Rs 2,483 crore, he said.
Four inland water routes between India and Bangladesh are operational at present.
The four routes are Kolkata-Pandu (in southern Assam) via Bangladesh, Kolkata-Karimganj (in southern Assam) via Bangladesh, Rajshahi (in Bangladesh)-Dhulian (in southern Assam) and Karimganj-Pandu-Karimganj via Bangladesh.