Inland Water Transport of Assam (IWT)

Assam Inland Water Transport was established in the year 1958. The department of Transport, Govt of Assam is the Administrative department of Inland Water Transport, Assam. The Directorate of Inland Water Transport, Assam was initially setup with a skeleton staff headed by a Director with its Head Quarter at Shillong. The tiny department started its services with a few nos. of ferry Ghats taken over from PWD. The department had worked hard to serve the people of Assam and its adjoining neighbouring states. In October, 1963 the Directorate of Inland Water Transport was shifted to Guwahati. This was slowly expanded to a fully fledged Directorate under the Transport Department, Govt. of Assam at Guwahati. As a first major steps toward its expansion activity, 6 (six ) nos. of ferry  services operating in the river Brahmaputra were taken over from the State PWD Department in 1968 . Since then, the Directorate of Inland Water Transport has never looked back. The wooden country boats which were plying in the services were gradually withdrawn and were replaced with power vessels. What They Do The present functions and responsibilities of the Directorate Inland Water Transport of Assam are detailed below:   FERRY SERVICES  : IWT is operating 102 nos. ferry services on the river Brahmaputra, Barak and in its tributaries for the purpose of public utility out of which 79 nos. Ferry services are in the Brahmaputra Valley and 23 nos. ferry services are in the Barak valley.   RIVER CONSERVANCY : The Department has its own river conservancy wing for maintaining proper navigability of the river route.   CREW TRAINING CENTRE: The Directorate of IWT marinating a Crew Training Centre at Guwahati for imparting training to the fresh candidates as  well as in – service personnel  of IWT department and other allied organization in the North Eastern  Region, both in private and public sector. More than 2000 crews have passed out from this Crew training centre.  Vision The Inland Water Transport Department is committed to ensure safe journey to the ferry commuters across the state and cargo transportation through inland waterways on the River Brahmaputra (National Waterways-2), River Barak (National Waterways-16) and other navigable tributaries within Assam. Mission Safe and secured Passenger & cargo ferry services. Capacity building of crew members in both public and private sector. Enforcement of Acts. Cruise Services in select areas