In line with Government's focus on improving connectivity to the North Eastern Region (NER), a landmark Container Cargo consignment to sail on inland waterways from Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) to Pandu, Guwahati, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) terminal, on 4th November, 2019.Shri Gopal Krishna. Secretary (Shipping) today flagged off the sailing-vessel, M Y Maheshwari via a video conference from Deep Bhawan at Taratolla. This vessel will carry 53 TEUs (containers) of petrochemicals, edible oil and beverage. The 12-15 days voyage will be an integrated IWT movement via National Waterway- l (river Ganga), NW-97 (Sunderbans), Indo-Bangladesh Protocol(IBP) route and NW-2(river Brahmaputra). He said, this is the first ever containerised cargo movement on this Inland Water Transport (IWT) route. The 1425km long movement is expected to establish the technical and commercial viability of IWT mode using these multiple waterways even as a series of pilot movements are planned on the stretch. Shri Krishna also said that the latest IWT movement is aimed at providing a fillip to North East Region's industrial development by opening up an alternate route for transportation of raw material and finished goods.The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Tracie (PIWTT) between India and Bangladesh allows mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways for movement of goods between the two countries by vessels of both countries. The IBP route extends from Kolkata (India) on NW-1 to Silghat (Assam) on NW-2 (River Brahmaputra) and Karimganj (Assam) on NW-16 (River Barak). Two stretches of Bangladesh inland waterways viz, Sirajganj-Daikhawa and Ashuganj-Zakiganj on the IBP route are being developed at a total cost of Rs 305.84 Cr. on 80:20 cost sharing basis (80% being borne by India & 20% by Bangladesh). The development of these two stretches is expected to provide seamless navigation to and from North East India through waterways via the IBP route. The contracts for dredging on the two stretches have been awarded for achieving and maintaining requisite depth.