The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) held a meeting with stakeholders in Shillong on Thursday 3 August to explore the concept of water transport for coal and other minerals.
WAI member, Vinayak Azaad, highlighted that the waterways can be utilized to export minerals from the state to different parts of the country and even to Bangladesh through Pandu port in Guwahati.
“We from IWAI would like to promote the use of national waterways for transportation of bulk cargo. The idea was to have an interaction and understand what are the requirements of the stakeholders in this regard,” he said.
He said that the Pandu port connects the mainland India to Bangladesh.
The stakeholders are primarily the ones who have been given licences for coal extraction, people from logistics, transport sector, officers from IWAI, and representatives of the terminal operators.
Speaking on the response of the stakeholders, Azaad said, that the overall response was positive, and the stakeholders showed enthusiasm in exploring the waterways as a mean for mineral and coal transportation.
Further, he informed that the meeting took suggestions and inputs from all the stakeholders and more such meetings will be held to materialise the same.
