Barak River to get National status
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 10 2013:
The Union Cabinet today approved the introduction of a Bill in the Parliament for declaring 121 kms Lakhipur-Bhanga stretch of the Barak River as a National Waterway.
An official source said that the Union Cabinet also gave its approval for preparation of projects/schemes for development of infrastructure facilities on this stretch of the river at an estimated cost of Rs123 crore with implementation in two phases.
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) set up under IWAI Act, 1985 will be the implementing agency for this project.
The first phase of the proposed project would be completed by 2016-17 followed by the second phase which is likely to be completed by 2018-19 .
The enactment to declare Lakhipur-Bhanga stretch of the Barak River as National Waterway will result in unified development of the waterways for shipping and navigation and transportation of bulk cargo to the North Eastern Region particularly in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, the source
said.
It may be mentioned that the Government of India has so far declared five waterways as National Waterways and they include the Allahabad-Haldia stretch of the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system (1620 kilometres); Dhubri-Sadiya stretch of Brahmaputra River (891 km); Kottapuram-Kollam stretch of West Coast Canal along with Udyog-mandal and Champakara Canals (205 km); Kakinada-Puducherry stretch of the canal along with designated stretches of Godavari and Krishna Rivers (1078 km); and designated stretches of East Coast Canal, Brahmani River and Mahanadi Delta (588 km) .
The Lakhipur-Bhanga stretch of the Barak River would be the sixth National Waterway, the source added.