India has decided to finance 80 per cent of the estimated ₹220 crore required for dredging to maintain navigability in the Sirajganj-Daikhawa on the Jamuna Ashugunj-Karimgunj stretch of the Kushiyara river in Bangladesh.
The Jamuna is the local name of the Brahmaputra in Bangladesh.
The Kushiyara is known as the Barak river in India. Both the stretches are part of the India-Bangladesh protocol routes. Dredging will help improve cargo movement from Kolkata to North-East through Bangladesh.
India signed an MoU for fairway development across the stretches with Bangladesh during the visit of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Delhi.
Dhaka allowed transhipment of goods through Ashugunj port, close to Tripura border, last year.
India is already developing the Varanasi-Kolkata stretch, called NW (National Waterway)-1 as a fairway at an estimated ₹5,369 crore under World Bank assistance.
Post development vessels capable to carry 1,500 to 2,000 tonne of cargo can travel through the stretch round the year.