By Ashapradeep Bureau

The Consignment will pass through Three Waterways in Its Journey from Kahalgaon in Bihar to Pandu in Assam

In what is one of the longest hauls in Inland Water Sector (IWT) movement in the country, a consignment of bagged fly ash bound for Pandu Inland port in Assam sailed from Kahalgaon in Bihar on today.

Marking the commencement of a critical integrated movement through three Waterways, 1233 tonnes of fly ash – a by-product from National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) Kahalgaon power plant- was flagged off at Kahalgaon on NW-1, river Ganga for Pandu on NW -2 ,river Brahmaputra. Two barges of 1000 tonnes capacity each, belonging to Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) will reach Pandu near Guwahati via the Indo Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route in nearly 20 days covering a distance of 2085 Kilometres.

Fly ash is in huge demand as raw material in cement and brick industry and is also used for the purpose of land filling. The said consignment is to be delivered to M/s Star Cements for use in their cement plant in Guwahati.

Thursday’s movement will evince confidence and interest in the inland waterways industry and vessel operators as more than 10 such pilot movements have been successfully completed lately on various stretches of NWs. In July, IWAI launched a dedicated portal ‘FOCAL” to connect cargo owners and shippers with real time data on availability of vessels.

IWAI Chairman Pravir Pandey said , “More such movements of fly ash and pond ash from the Super Thermal Power Plants of NTPC are being planned on National Waterway-1”.

As part of IWAI’s commitment towards enabling an alternative mode of transport which is environment friendly and cost effective, substantial infrastructure development like multi-modal and inter-modal terminals, Roll on – Roll off (Ro-Ro) facilities, ferry services, navigation aids are underway.