Brahmaputra banks in Assam to have country's first riverine lighthouses for navigation aid, tourism

Guwahati: The banks of the Brahmaputra in Assam, designated as the National Waterways-II (NW-II), will have the country's first riverine lighthouses, for navigational aid as well as for tourism.

The four lighthouses will be constructed along the river banks in Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district, Pandu in Kamrup (Metro) district, Silghat in Nagaon district and Biswanath Ghat in Biswanath district. 

The Union Minister for Shipping and Inland Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday laid the foundation for the four projects with allocation of Rs 84 crores. 

Each lighthouse will rise up to 20 metres with a geographical range of 14 nautical miles and a luminous range of 8 to 10 nautical miles, powered entirely by solar energy. "Alongside navigation infrastructure, every site will feature a museum, amphitheatre, cafeteria, children's play area, souvenir shop and landscaped public spaces, positioning each lighthouse as a tourism landmark as well as a functional maritime asset," the ministry said in a statement.

The Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships and Inland Waterways Authority of India will construct the lighthouses.   

The commissioning of the riverine lighthouses on NW-2 is in response to a 53 percent surge in cargo movement on the Brahmaputra waterway during 2024–25, it said.  The NW-2 connects West Bengal with Dhubri and upto Sadiya in Assam across a navigable length of 891 kilometres — the longest navigable stretch of any Indian waterway — passing through the Northeast.

The ministry said cargo traffic on the NW-2 has been growing consistently and the Brahmaputra corridor has now become integral to supply chains serving Assam's tea, coal and fertiliser industries, in addition to carrying passenger and tourism traffic. "The new lighthouses will enable 24×7 safe navigation, accommodate weather observation sensors and provide the navigational infrastructure necessary for the sustained growth of both freight and passenger movement on the river."

"For a region like Northeast India, where road infrastructure is perpetually under pressure from both traffic and terrain, activating the Brahmaputra as a full-scale freight corridor is not a choice but a necessity. For far too long, this remained ignored by the Congress, leading to lack of opportune utilisation of our biggest asset, Brahmaputra. Under PM Modi ji, there hasbeen an earnest attempt to realise this opportunity and convert this majestic river as the true carrier of Assam’s hopes and aspirations. Towards this end, the upcoming lighthouses are the crucial innovation of that activation,” Sonowal, who hails from Assam, said.