Assam revives Dibrugarh river route with first Bangladesh cargo shipment

A barge carrying 540 metric tonnes of methanol left Dibrugarh for Bangladesh on Monday, marking the first cargo shipment from upper Assam to a foreign port since Independence. The voyage will test the Brahmaputra’s potential as a commercial freight corridor

Dibrugarh (Assam): A barge carrying 540 metric tonnes of methanol left Bogibeel Terminal here for Dhaka in Bangladesh on Monday, marking the first cargo shipment from upper Assam to a foreign port since Independence, nearly seven decades after Dibrugarh’s river ghat fell silent.

The methanol, produced by state-owned Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd (APCL) at Namrup, is bound for Pangaon Port in Dhaka. The vessel will travel about 768 km along National Waterway-2 on the Brahmaputra to the India-Bangladesh border before continuing on the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR).

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The vessel will cover a total distance of about 1,300 km from Bogibeel in Dibrugarh to Narayanganj in Dhaka.

Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal flagged off the vessel DLB Patkai, pushed by the tug Kushal Konwar, from Bogibeel. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the ceremony virtually.

The voyage is being viewed as a test of whether the Brahmaputra can emerge as a commercially viable freight corridor linking the Northeast with overseas markets. Regular methanol shipments to Bangladesh are planned. The shipment was made possible after customs and immigration complexes were recently established at Bogibeel and Dhubri.

“Our grandparents grew up hearing the steamer whistle at Dibrugarh Ghat. For 70 years, that whistle fell silent, and the ships stopped coming,” Sonowal said.

“Today, a ship leaves Dibrugarh for the world once again. The river never failed us. What it lacked for decades was the will to revive it,” he said.

Sarma described it as a proud day for Assam.

“Assam’s own product, made in Namrup, is now travelling to an international market on Assam’s own river. The Northeast is no longer a frontier. It is India’s gateway to the East,” he said.

Dibrugarh was once among the busiest river ports in eastern India. Government steamers reached the town from Calcutta, now Kolkata, by 1856. In 1882, the Dibru-Sadiya Railway began operating from the Dibrugarh steamer ghat.

By 1913, steamers were sailing up the Brahmaputra to Dibrugarh daily, carrying tea, timber and passengers. The 1947 Partition disrupted the route, forcing Assam’s goods to pass through East Pakistan to reach Calcutta.

According to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, cargo movement on India’s national waterways rose from 18 million metric tonnes in 2013-14 to 218 million metric tonnes in 2025-26.

More than Rs 6,800 crore is being invested in waterways across the Northeast, including the development of National Waterway-2, a ship repair facility at Pandu and last-mile connectivity to Pandu Port.

“Every ton we move on the river means less fuel burnt and fewer trucks on the highway,” Sonowal said.

He added that India was working with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar on regional waterway links.