GUWAHATI: The Assam government should focus on improving the Inland Water Transport sector (IWT) and enhancing IWT-centric trade and livelihoods in the state.
This was stated by noted Agricultural scientist Dr. Veena Vidyadharan during the recently held Arun Roy Memorial Lecture on the topic ‘Inland Water Transport: Challenges and Opportunities in the context of the Brahmaputra’.
Speaking during the event, Vidyadharan laid stress on the importance of riverine transport and waterways. She also highlighted the bilateral cooperation between Bangladesh and India in the Brahmaputra and Meghna River basins on the use of the coastal protocol routes for riverine transit and trade.
The lecture programme was organized by Aaranyak, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati, and the Northeast India Water Forum (NIWaF) in Guwahati.
Dr. Veena Vidyadharan is a fellow at the CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment (CUTS CITEE), an international think tank based in Jaipur. Trained as an agricultural scientist, Dr. Veena has about 20 years of experience and expertise in research and project management related to agriculture, climate change, connectivity, transboundary water governance, regional integration and livelihoods, and food security.
She has been working consistently on issues of inland navigation and transboundary riverine trade.
Arun Roy was considered one of the foremost experts on river engineering and Inland Waterways Transport operations in India.
Prof Anamika Barua, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati said the three organisations came together to commemorate the contribution made by the late Roy to the sector of inland water transport as well as trade and commerce in Northeast India.
Several other issues of the IWT sector were flagged by Dr. Veena during the event. Other issues including navigability of rivers, flood erosion, transboundary nature of rivers, climate change, river geomorphology, and government policies, among others were also discussed at length during the memorial lecture.
