In response to the proposal of the Tripura government, the Union Ministry of Ports, Water Transport and Shipping has taken initiative to link the Tripura’s Gomati rover with the Bangladesh’ Meghna River to create waterways between the state and Bangladesh nation.

In a written reply to the query of MLA Nirmal Biswas here in the assembly session on Thursday, the state transport and tourism minister Sushanta Chowdhury informed that the Centre has recently sanctioned Rs. 24 crore 52 lakh 57 thousand for the project work, which will begin shortly with due procedures.

In the first phase of the project work, digging of river Gomti from Sonamura to Udaipur stretching 40 kms will be done including installation of 9 floating jetties and prevention of river bank erosion, he informed the assembly.

The Inland Waterways Authority of India constructed a temporary floating jetty at Srimantapur in Sonamura and handed it over to the Land Ports Authority of India on July 7, 2020. At present the work of embankment and excavation work is being carried out by the State Water Resources Department, he added. B

Besides, the Sonamura-Daudkandi inland waterway route between India and Bangladesh has been declared as international water communication protocol route on May 5, 2020 with which the protocol route will be linked to National Waterway-1 (River Ganges), National Waterway-2 (River Brahmaputra), National Waterway-16 (River Barak) and Kaladan River in Myanmar, he said.

He said that with the Sonamura-Daudkandi inland waterway route, Tripura will be connected with other states of mainland India and neighbouring states of SouthEast Asia through the waterway. The transport minister said that the proposal to extend the Sonamura-Daudkandi protocol route up to Udaipur (40 km) is under the consideration of the Water Transport Department.