Guwahati: Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, laid the foundation stones for four river lighthouses in Assam along the Brahmaputra River, marking the first time lighthouse infrastructure is being installed on an inland waterway in India.
The ceremony, held at Lachit Ghat, Guwahati, 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 lighthouses will be constructed at Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district, Pandu in Kamrup (Metro) district, Silghat in Nagaon district, all along the south bank, and Biswanath Ghat in Biswanath district on the north bank. These sites are strategically located along National Waterway-2 (NW-2), a key corridor for cargo and passenger movement in Assam. The total project cost for all four lighthouses is approximately Rs 84 crore.
Each lighthouse will rise 20 metres and feature a geographical range of 14 nautical miles and a luminous range of 8–10 nautical miles, powered entirely by solar energy. The sites will also include a museum, amphitheatre, cafeteria, children’s play area, souvenir shop, and landscaped public spaces, combining functional navigation infrastructure with tourism facilities.
The commissioning of the lighthouses comes amid a 53 percent increase in cargo movement on the Brahmaputra during the 2024–25 financial year, according to IWAI. The waterway is an important supply route for Assam’s tea, coal, and fertiliser industries, in addition to passenger and tourism traffic.
The new infrastructure aims to enable 24×7 navigation, support weather observation sensors, and provide safe river operations for both freight and passenger movement.
“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. A tonne of freight moved by water costs a fraction of what road transport demands, generates a fraction of the carbon, and frees our highways for passengers and time-sensitive goods. These lighthouses on the Brahmaputra are a statement of intent: that India’s rivers are open for business, round the clock,” Sonowal said.
The ceremony was attended by Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Minister of Tourism, Assam; Charan Boro, Minister of Transport, Assam; Jayanta Mallabaruah, Minister of Public Health Engineering, Assam; Bijuli Kalita Medhi, MP, Guwahati; and Siddhartha Bhattacharya, MLA, East Guwahati. Senior officials present included Vijay Kumar, IAS, Secretary, MoPSW, and N. Muruganandam, DG, DGLL.
“Waterways offer a decisive cost advantage. Moving a tonne of cargo by inland waterway costs roughly one-third of road transport and half of rail. For a region like Northeast India, where road infrastructure is under pressure from traffic and terrain, activating the Brahmaputra as a full-scale freight corridor is not a choice but a necessity. Towards this end, the upcoming lighthouses are the crucial innovation of that activation,” Sonowal added.
The project follows an initiative by the Minister’s Office to explore the feasibility of river lighthouses in the Northeast. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IWAI and DGLL was signed on April 8, 2025, covering all four sites.
The sites were formally transferred to DGLL under Right of Use agreements in June 2025. Each lighthouse is expected to be completed within 24 months of contract award, following geotechnical investigation, topographic survey, and detailed design.
“As traffic on NW-2 grows, the environmental and congestion benefits compound — fewer emissions, less road wear, lower accident risk, and a more resilient supply chain for the Northeast. The Deepstambh lighthouses will make night navigation safe and reliable, removing the single largest barrier to round-the-clock waterway operations,” Sonowal said.
The DGLL, under MoPSW, provides aids to navigation across India’s coastline and inland waterways. IWAI manages and develops national waterways, maintaining infrastructure, terminals, and navigational facilities to facilitate cargo and passenger movement.
NW-2 connects Dhubri in West Bengal to Sadiya in upper Assam, spanning 891 kilometres, the longest navigable stretch of any Indian waterway.
The four lighthouses are part of a wider programme to equip India’s inland waterways with navigation safety infrastructure similar to that used along the country’s coasts.