Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Inaugurates Three Infrastructure Projects on National Waterway-2

Key facts

• Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated three major inland waterways infrastructure projects on National Waterway-2 (NW-2) on the River Brahmaputra.
• The three projects comprise the Customs and Immigration Complex at Bogibeel, the Customs and Immigration Complex at Dhubri, and the renovated Heritage Building of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) at Dibrugarh.
• The Bogibeel complex serves as a modern tourist-cum-cargo terminal designed to improve operational efficiency and facilitate trade under the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol routes.
• The Dhubri complex is designed to enhance regulatory oversight and boost export-import operations with Bangladesh and Bhutan in western Assam.
• The renovated Heritage Building at Dibrugarh will serve the administrative needs of the IWAI and promote riverine tourism.
• Under the National Waterways Act, 2016, twenty rivers in the Northeast have been declared National Waterways, including NW-2 (Brahmaputra), NW-16 (Barak), NW-31 (Dhansiri), and NW-57 (Kopili).