Infrastructure
Arun Kumar Das
May 18, 2023, 04:55 PM | Updated 04:55 PM IST
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Aiming at connecting seven religious sites by Waterways in Guwahati, the Union government is developing the Riverine based tourism Circuit over the Brahmaputra river in Assam.
This Sagarmala project will connect the seven historic temples namely Kamakhya, Pandunath, Ashwaklanta, Doul Govinda, Umananda, Chakreshwar and Auniati Satra situated in Guwahati. The circuit will sail from Hanuman Ghat, Uzan Bazar and will complete its journey by covering all the above-mentioned temples through waterways.
The ferry service is expected to reduce the overall travel time to less than two hours for completing one complete circuit.
Union Ports, Shipping and Waterways Ministry is committed towards developing Inland Waterways.
In this line, an MoU for ‘Riverine based tourism Circuit’ being developed over river Brahmaputra will be signed between Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Sagarmala Development Company Limited (SDCL), Assam Tourism Development Corporation Limited (ATDC) and Directorate of Inland Water Transport (DIWT) Assam in Guwahati on 19 May 2023.
The signing ceremony will take place in august presence of Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam and Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush.
The project is being developed under the Sagarmala Programme at an initial cost of Rs 40-45 crore. SDCL and IWAI will jointly contribute 55 per cent of the project cost while the remaining will be provided by ATDC. DIWT has consented to provide the usage of Ghats near the temples free of cost for the project.
Arun Kumar Das is a senior journalist covering railways. He can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com.