Silchar, Jan. 31: The Barak river in south Assam has been accorded high priority by the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation, considering its growing importance in terms of commercial traffic.
The corporation will take up dredging in congested stretches of the Barak river between Lakhipur and Karimganj.
A 140-km stretch of the river between Lakhipur and Karimganj has already been declared as National Waterway 4 as part of a plan to set up an all-season link with the National Waterway 1 between Allahabad and Calcutta. The corporation will also lay a ?channel marker? on the river to ensure navigation safety.
Sources said the corporation would hand over the task of maintenance to the inland water transport department of Assam soon. The national waterway scheme aims at promoting navigation along key river systems in the country to boost cargo traffic. River cargo is still the cheapest means of ferrying bulk products.
The Assam government, too, is keen on promoting river navigation, official sources said. The North Eastern Council (NEC) has granted Rs 18 crore to the inland water transport department of the Assam government to set up two terminal jetties at Badarpur in Karimganj and Silchar in Cachar district. Official sources said while the Rs 8-crore Badarpur jetty-cum-terminal would be ready for commissioning in 2005, the one in Silchar, worth Rs 10 crore, would go on stream in 2006.
The NEC had initially entrusted the task of the proposed construction to the corporation in the early Nineties. The corporation then entrusted this job to the inland water transport department in 1998.