The Minister of State for Shipping and Finance Shri Pon Radhakrishnan in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today informed that 20 National Waterways out of 111 are in North Eastern Region (NER).  NW-2 (river Brahmaputra) from Dhubri to Sadiya (891 km) is operational for transport and cruise and cargo vessels are moving on it.   The present status of facilities created/ to be created in NW-2 is as follows-

Status of projects constructed and under implementation on NW-2

1. Facilities  already created / constructed
2. Navigational channel with least available depth of 2.5 m between Bangladesh Border - Neamati, 2.0 m between Neamati - Dibrugarh and 1.5 m between Dibrugarh - Sadiya / Oriumghat are maintained.
3. Multimodal terminal at Pandu with Low Level and High Level Jetty.
4. Ro-Ro terminal at Dhubri with RCC Ro-Ro Jetty.
5. Floating terminal at 11 locations on NW-2 i.e. Hatsingimari, Jogighopa, Pandu, Tezpur, Silghat, Biswanathghat, Neamati, Bogibeel, Sengajan, Oakland/ Dibrugarh and Oriumghat.
6. Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) at Dhubri, Jogighopa, Biswanathghat and Dibrugarh for safe navigation.
7. Ro-Ro service for providing connectivity between north bank (Dhubri) and south bank (Hatsingimari) of river Brahmaputra. The Ro-Ro service has created a direct link between Assam and Meghalaya enabling trucks/ vehicle to avoid circuitous road route of approx. 220 km through Jogighopa Bridge. The Ro-Ro services between Dhubri and Hatsingimari started w.e.f. 01.07.2017.
8. Day navigational aids for safe shipping and navigation in entire stretches of NW-2.
9. Night navigational aids for safe shipping and navigation in Bangladesh Border – Pandu and Pandu – Silghat stretches of NW-2.
10. River Conservancy Works like bandalling and dredging for maintaining navigable depth in shallow location.
11. Fortnightly/ Monthly Thalweg Survey in entire stretches of NW-2.    
12. Regular cargo service on NW-2 is carried out by IWAI through departmental tug and 400 tonne capacity barge (taken from IWT Assam).

2. Projects under implementation in NER:

1. Channelization of navigational route between Burhaburhi to Hatsingimari in Bangladesh Border – Pandu stretch through Water Resource Department, Govt. of Assam.  The expected date of completion is by August 2018.
2. Two more Ro-Ro routes have been identified between (i) Neamati to Kamlabari at an estimated cost of Rs. 215 cr. with length of 12.7 km by waterway (which otherwise takes 410 km of travel by road) to be operationalised by December 2018,  and (ii) Maijan (Dibrugarh) to Sengajan at an estimated cost of Rs. 182 cr. and length of 24.7 km by waterway (which otherwise takes 640 km of travel by Road) to be operationalised by August 2019.
3. Procurement of 2 Self-Propelled Cutter Suction Dredgers (SPCSDs) by February 2020.

Fairway development works commenced on new NW-16 (river Barak) in 2017-18 for Phase-I from Silchar to Bhanga with scheduled completion in September, 2019. The time frame for the development and operationalization of these NWs depends on the outcome of the feasibility studies. The status of feasibility studies of remaining 18 new NWs in NER is as follows-

National Waterways Act:

• The National Waterways Act 2016 declared 106 new waterways as national waterways (NWs) in addition to the existing five NW.
• The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has estimated that approximately Rs 25,000 crore would be required for development of identified projects on NWs till 2022-23.