Published : 06 Oct 2026, 01:10 PM
Updated : 06 Oct 2026, 01:10 PM
The pre-Partition-era water transport route between Dibrugarh in Assam and Dhaka in Bangladesh has been formally revived with the departure of a vessel carrying 540 tonnes of methanol for Bangladesh.
DLB Patkai, carrying the consignment, was flagged off by Union Minister of Shipping and Water Transport Sarbananda Sonowal from Bogibeel in Dibrugarh on Monday, Deccan Herald reports.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the flag-off event virtually, according to the Indian daily.
The route, once used by the British to transport tea, timber and coal through Kolkata, remained closed after the 1947 Partition. An official of the Inland Waterways Authority of India said the Brahmaputra river port at Dibrugarh itself was closed in 1956.
“Our grandparents grew up hearing the steamer whistle at Dibrugarh terminal. For 70 years, when the ghat was closed, that whistle fell silent and the ships stopped coming,” Sonowal, who grew up in Dibrugarh, 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.”
The methanol, produced by state-owned Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd at Namrup, is bound for Pangaon Port in Dhaka.
The vessel will travel about 768 kilometres along National Waterway-2 on the Brahmaputra in India to the Indo-Bangladesh border before continuing along the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route.
It will cover a total distance of about 1,300 kilometres from Bogibeel in Dibrugarh to Narayanganj in Dhaka.
Sarma said the shipment was significant as an Assam-made product was 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.
Brahmaputra as Freight Corridor
Officials said the voyage is being observed as a test of whether the Brahmaputra can become a commercially viable freight corridor linking India’s Northeast with overseas markets.
Regular methanol shipments to Bangladesh are planned.
The shipment became possible after customs and immigration facilities were recently established at Bogibeel and Dhubri.
“Dibrugarh, called the tea capital of India, is reclaiming the glory it once had as a great river port. We are building it with world-class infrastructure while honouring its heritage. The steamer whistle that fell silent in 1956 is heard again,” Sonowal said.
Officials described the development as significant amid strained relations between India and the current government in Bangladesh.
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 the town daily, carrying tea, timber and passengers.
The 1947 Partition cut the route, forcing Assam’s goods to pass through East Pakistan to reach Calcutta. A 1950 earthquake altered the riverbed at Dibrugarh.
Regular bookings from Dibrugarh port stopped in 1954, and the ghat was closed on Oct 15, 1956, as tea shipments shifted to rail. The 1965 war between India and Pakistan subsequently suspended cross-border river trade.
India and Bangladesh signed a river trade protocol in 1972.
In 1988, the 891-kilometre stretch of the Brahmaputra from Sadiya to Dhubri was declared National Waterway-2. Regular cargo services on the waterway began only in December 2017, when cement was transported from Pandu in Guwahati to Dhubri in western Assam, which shares water and road borders with Bangladesh.
Sonowal said activity on the route has grown since then.
Tata Steel barges reached Pandu through Bangladesh in February 2022, while the river cruise ship MV Ganga Vilas travelled from Varanasi to Dibrugarh through Bangladesh in 2023.
The Bogibeel passenger and cargo terminal, whose foundation stone was laid in July 2023, opened in February 2024.
According to Sonowal, cargo movement on India’s national waterways rose from 18 million metric tonnes in fiscal 2013-14 to 218 million metric tonnes in 2025-26.
More than $770 million 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 tonne we move on the river means less fuel burnt and fewer trucks on the highway,” Sonowal said.
He added that India is working with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar on regional waterway links.
The voyage involved the Inland Waterways Authority of India, Assam Petro-Chemicals, Cochin Bunkers Pvt Ltd and partners in Bangladesh.
