Posted on May 24, 2016
Three terminals cum Jetties would be established in Tripura to implement the ambitious inland waterway project linking Gomati river with the Meghna river in Bangladesh.
The three Jetties having port like facilities would come up three separate places- Maharani Barrage, Udaipur and Sonamura as per the DPR prepared by RITES. As per the DPR, the project is supposed to be completed within the next two years after releasing of funds. As of now, the Ministry of Water Resource has released Rs 2 crore for initiating the Rs 12 crore project.
“The important aspect of the project is to procure dredging machine to prepare Gomati for navigation at least for 150 days in a year”, Chief Engineer of Water Resource department Tapan Lodh said adding that the waterway’s depth would be 1 meter while width would be 12 meter to sail 10-ton vessels. Lodh said the entire 52 km waterway from Maharani barrage to Sonamura border will have to undergo dredging. “We are planning to float tender for supplying of dredger at the earliest so that dreading work could be started by the current financial year”, he added.
However, many raise question mark on the viability of the project. Akhaura and Srimantapur LCSs are working for border trade while Kamalasagar border haat is also functioning. “Rail-link is almost certain between Bangladesh and Agartala as the Centre has already sanctioned the project. Traders will obviously prefer to use rail link rather than water way”, said a businessman engaged in border trade.
Source: Northeast Today
