A methanol cargo from Assam's Bogibeel terminal to Pangaon port near Dhaka is described by the government as the first international cargo from Dibrugarh since Independence.

BulletsIn

• Before Partition, the Brahmaputra and its links through East Bengal were Upper Assam's main outlet for tea and timber, with Dibrugarh a leading river port.
• Partition in 1947 and the 1965 war disrupted this river route, which the new voyage seeks to revive.
• The cargo was flagged off on 5 October 2026 at Bogibeel Terminal, Dibrugarh, by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and the Inland Waterways Authority of India.
• The consignment is methanol produced by Assam Petro-Chemicals Limited at Namrup, with the Government of Assam also involved.
• The vessel travels on National Waterway-2, then the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route, to reach Pangaon Port near Dhaka.
• National Waterway-2 runs along the Brahmaputra from Dhubri to Sadiya, about 891 km, and was among waterways declared under the National Waterways Act, 2016.
• The Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, first signed in 1972, lets each country's vessels use designated river routes in the other.
• Bogibeel Bridge at Dibrugarh, opened in 2018, is India's longest rail-cum-road bridge at about 4.94 km.
• River cargo offers the Northeast an alternative outlet to land access through the narrow Siliguri Corridor.
• The braided, silt-laden Brahmaputra limits lean-season depths, and regular trade depends on continued Bangladeshi cooperation under the Protocol.
• One voyage is a pilot, and lasting cargo flows will need assured volumes, terminal handling and return cargo.