Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday laid the foundation stones for four riverine lighthouses along the Brahmaputra River, marking the first time lighthouse infrastructure will be established on an inland waterway in the country.
The foundation ceremony was held at Lachit Ghat and was organised jointly 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 lighthouses will be constructed at Bogibeel, Pandu, Silghat and Biswanath Ghat along the Brahmaputra River, which forms part of National Waterway 2. The project involves a total investment of around ₹84 crore.
Each lighthouse will be about 20 metres tall and will have a geographical range of 14 nautical miles and a luminous range of 8–10 nautical miles. The structures will be powered entirely by solar energy and equipped with weather observation sensors to support round-the-clock navigation.
Apart from aiding navigation, the lighthouse sites will also be developed as tourism destinations with facilities such as museums, amphitheatres, cafeterias, children’s play areas, souvenir shops and landscaped public spaces.
Speaking at the event, Sonowal said the project reflects the government’s commitment to strengthening inland waterways as an efficient and sustainable mode of transport. He said waterways offer significant cost advantages, noting that transporting cargo by water costs far less than by road and generates significantly lower carbon emissions.
The minister added that the Brahmaputra corridor is increasingly becoming a vital freight route for the northeastern region, supporting industries such as tea, coal and fertilisers while also facilitating passenger and tourism traffic.
The Ministry said the cargo movement on National Waterway-2 witnessed a 53 per cent increase during the financial year 2024–25, highlighting the growing importance of the river as a logistics corridor in the Northeast.
The lighthouse project follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed between IWAI and DGLL on April 8, 2025, for the development of navigation infrastructure at the four locations. The sites were formally transferred to DGLL in June 2025, and the lighthouses are expected to be completed within 24 months after the award of contracts.
Stretching about 891 kilometres from Dhubri to Sadiya, National Waterway-2 is the longest navigable stretch of any inland waterway in India and plays a key role in connecting the northeastern states with national and international trade routes.
The Ministry said the new riverine lighthouses will improve navigational safety, enable night operations and support the long-term development of inland water transport across the region. The initiative is also expected to pave the way for expanding modern navigation infrastructure across India’s inland waterways network.
