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For the first time in nearly 70 years since the 1947 Partition of India, cargo has begun moving directly from Assam to an international port, with a vessel carrying 540 metric tonnes of methanol leaving Bogibeel Terminal in Dibrugarh for Bangladesh.
The historic river route was inaugurated on Monday by Indian Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal at a ceremony attended virtually by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The methanol, produced at the Namrup plant of state-owned Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd (APCL), is being transported to Pangaon Inland Container Terminal in Dhaka.
The cargo vessel will travel around 768 kilometres along the Brahmaputra, designated as National Waterway-2, to the India-Bangladesh border before continuing along the India-Bangladesh Protocol Route to its destination.
The vessel will cover approximately 1,300 kilometres by river from Bogibeel to Narayanganj.
The shipment is being viewed as a pilot initiative to assess the commercial potential of the Brahmaputra as a trade link connecting northeastern India with international markets.
At the inauguration ceremony, Sonowal recalled Dibrugarh’s historic river trade, saying the sound of steamers had once been a familiar part of life at the Dibrugarh ghat but had remained silent for decades.
Dibrugarh was once one of eastern India’s busiest river ports. Government steamers from then-Calcutta were reaching the port by 1856, while the Dibru-Sadiya Railway began operations from Dibrugarh Steamer Ghat in 1882. By 1913, steamers carrying tea, timber and passengers were operating daily from the ghat.
The 1947 Partition disrupted the traditional river route. Its importance later declined following changes to the riverbed caused by the 1950 earthquake and the shift of tea transportation to rail. Regular cargo bookings from Dibrugarh were discontinued in 1954, and the ghat was completely closed on October 15, 1956.
India and Bangladesh signed the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade in 1972, paving the way for renewed river trade between the two countries. In 1988, the 891-kilometre stretch of the Brahmaputra from Sadiya to Dhubri was declared National Waterway-2.