Cargo vessels from Assam’s Dibrugarh are set to sail to Bangladesh, ferrying methanol to the neighbouring country through the Brahmaputra river, an official said. Assam Petro-Chemicals Ltd (APL) Chairman Bikul Deka claimed that this will mark the resumption of the export route from the eastern town through waterways since Independence.
He said two vessels of the state government’s Inland Water Transport Department have been leased by the APL to export methanol to Bangladesh.
The APL is a state government undertaking that produces methanol and formalin, and was set up to utilise the huge reserve of natural gas in the eastern Assam oil fields.
“Another dream on the path to realisation. Since the British left, it is not known that any trade has been carried out through water transport via the Brahmaputra from Dibrugarh in independent India, nor am I aware of any instance of transporting locally produced goods through this route for trade,” Deka said in a social media post on Saturday.
He said the two ships of the Inland Water Transport Department were lying abandoned for around 30 years, and these were repaired at Pandu Ghat in Guwahati, with the objective to export the company’s methanol to Dhaka.
“This will open an avenue for cost-effective import-export route through the Brahmaputra,” Deka said, adding that the first ship, ‘DLB Patkai’, has arrived at Bogibeel ghat in Dibrugarh. The APL chairman, however, did not elaborate on when the export will commence.
