Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday laid the foundation stone for four riverine lighthouses along the Brahmaputra, marking what officials described as India’s first such initiative on an inland waterway.
The foundation ceremony was held at Lachit Ghat in Guwahati and was jointly organised by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) and the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
The four proposed lighthouse sites are at Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district, Pandu in Kamrup (Metro), Silghat in Nagaon district and Biswanath Ghat in Biswanath district. Three of the locations are on the south bank of the Brahmaputra, while Biswanath Ghat lies on the north bank.
The installations will come up along National Waterway-2 (NW-2), the 891-km navigable stretch connecting Dhubri to Sadiya and one of the most significant inland cargo and passenger corridors in the Northeast.
The combined cost of the project is estimated at about ₹84 crore.
Each lighthouse will rise to around 20 metres and will have a geographical range of 14 nautical miles and a luminous range of 8–10 nautical miles. The structures will operate entirely on solar energy and are expected to support round-the-clock navigation on the river.
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Besides serving navigational purposes, the sites are also planned as tourism and public spaces. Each lighthouse complex will include a museum, amphitheatre, cafeteria, children’s play area, souvenir shop and landscaped surroundings.
Officials said the project comes amid rising cargo traffic on the Brahmaputra waterway. According to the Inland Waterways Authority of India, cargo movement on NW-2 registered a 53 per cent increase during the 2024-25 financial year.
Addressing the gathering, Sonowal said inland waterways were being developed as a key driver of economic growth.
“Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji, inland waterways are not merely an alternative to roadways and railways but they are being energised and enabled as force multiplier for our economy,” he said.
“These lighthouses on the Brahmaputra are a statement of intent: that India’s rivers are open for business, round the clock,” Sonowal added.
The minister also said transportation through waterways offers a significant cost advantage, noting that moving cargo by inland waterways costs roughly one-third of road transport and about half of rail transport.
The project is expected to be completed within 24 months after the award of contracts.
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