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Government Of Assam Water Resources

New Initiative

Dredging of River Brahmaputra

An initiative taken by the Govt. of Assam as a solution to the mayhem of flood and erosion that has gobbled up huge mass of land on both bank of the mighty river Brahmaputra is the dredging of the river. Brahmaputra carries huge amount of sediment during flood. As a result, the bed level of the river rises and the river width increases. This increase in braidedness of the river leads to more erosion.

Dredging of the river would dig out sediments from the river bed and will increase the water retention capacity of the river. Consequently, the pressure on the banks would be reduced minimizing the chances of flood and erosion. Brahmaputra National Waterway-II will have direct access to Chittagong port of Bangladesh and Haldia port of West Bengal. Funds will be provided by the Govt. of India to develop 56 jetties on the banks of Brahmaputra.

To study the management strategies of the Yellow River, and whether they could be applied in the Brahmaputra for controlling flood and erosion, the Govt. is planning to form an expert committee to be sent to China. This study will be conducted in association with the World Bank, where road map will be prepared and will take into account all details related to river engineering, basin characteristics, hydrology, channel morphology and floodplain evolution

Besides dredging, the Assam government has decided to link Majuli by bridge with both the banks of the Brahmaputra as a means to reduce the speed of the water that hits the banks of the river island.