Bogibeel Terminal Sends 540 Tonnes of Methanol to Bangladesh

A barge loaded with 540 metric tonnes of methanol sailed out of the Bogibeel Terminal at Dibrugarh in Assam on 5 October 2026, bound for Bangladesh. Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal flagged off the vessel DLB Patkai, which is pushed by the tug Kushal Konwar. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the ceremony through a video link.

Why the voyage is a first

This is the first consignment to leave upper Assam for a foreign port after India became independent in 1947. The river ghat of the town had been shut since 1956, and nothing had gone abroad by water from there for close to seven decades. The despatch became possible only after customs and immigration complexes were readied at Bogibeel and at Dhubri.

The route

The methanol has been made by the state-owned Assam Petro-Chemicals Limited at Namrup and is going to Pangaon Port in Dhaka. The barge will run roughly 768 kilometres along National Waterway-2 on the Brahmaputra inside India before it reaches the border, and will then use the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route. From Bogibeel up to Narayanganj near Dhaka the full run measures about 1,300 kilometres. The trip is being watched as a trial of whether the Brahmaputra can work as a paying freight corridor between the Northeast and markets abroad, and regular methanol despatches are planned.

Dibrugarh as a river port

Steamers from Calcutta were calling at the town by 1856, and the Dibru-Sadiya Railway began running from its steamer ghat in 1882. By 1913 daily steamers were carrying tea, timber and passengers up the Brahmaputra. Partition in 1947 severed that route, an earthquake in 1950 disturbed the riverbed, regular bookings ended in 1954 and the ghat closed on 15 October 1956 as tea moved to the railways. Cross-border river trade stopped during the war of 1965, and a river trade protocol with Bangladesh was signed in 1972.

Waterway figures

Scheduled cargo on the waterway began only in December 2017, when cement moved from Pandu to Dhubri. The Bogibeel passenger and cargo terminal was opened in February 2024 after its foundation stone was laid in July 2023, and the Jalvahak cargo incentive programme started in December 2024. More than 68 billion rupees is being invested in waterways across the Northeast, including a ship repair facility at Pandu. Sonowal said India is working with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar on regional waterway links.