National Waterway-1 and National Waterway-2, and the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route

Background

National Waterway-1 is the river Ganga, which connects Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. National Waterway-2 is the river Brahmaputra, which provides alternate waterway connectivity to the North-Eastern Region through the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route. Ongoing projects on National Waterway-1 and National Waterway-2 aim at capacity augmentation of these waterways. Movement of goods through National Waterway-2 and the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route and through National Waterway-1 is seen as helpful in unlocking the economic potential of the North-Eastern Region. A pilot movement of 200 tonnes of Food Corporation of India food grain ran from Patna in Bihar to Pandu in Guwahati, Assam, via the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route, covering 2,350 km, and a further pilot carried 1,798.27 tonnes of thermo-mechanically treated steel bars. In 2021-22, 319 vessels carrying 51,210 tonnes of stone aggregates and coal sailed from Dhubri in India to Chilmari in Bangladesh.