The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has achieved a landmark when the motor vessel (MV) Ram Prasad Bismil became the longest vessel ever to sail on the Brahmaputra river on Tuesday.
The 90 meters long flotilla is 26 meters wide, loaded with a draft of 2.1 meters, successfully completed the aspiring pilot run of heavy cargo movement from Haldia Dock in Kolkata after it anchored at Pandu port in Guwahati.
The cargo vessel was flagged off from the Haldia Dock in Kolkata along with two barges (DB Kalpana Chawla and DB APJ Abdul Kalam) by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (PSW), Sarbananda Sonowal on February 16, 2022 and docked at Pandu port in Guwahati on March 15, 2022. Carrying 1793 metric tonnes of steel rods, the vessel covered the distance from Haldia to Pandu through Bangladesh on the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR).
