Hailakandi: The dredging of the Barak will start within the next few days before the three-day Namami Barak Festival starts from November 18.

During the Namami Brahmaputra Festival held in Guwahati early this year, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari had announced the dredging of two major rivers, the Barak and the Brahmaputra, to control floods and to ease the movement of ships.

A Karimganj district administration official said the dredgers and other related machinery had reached Jakiganj in Bangladesh, bordering Karimganj, in four ships after a 10-day journey from Calcutta. Kolkata's Reach Dredging Ltd has got the tender for the dredging of the Barak.

Initially, 71km will be covered, from Silchar's Raniferry ghat to Karimganj's Bhanga, and will take six months, an official of the company said. The work will be inaugurated at the Annapurnaghat area in Silchar town.

The Barak is one of the major rivers of South Assam and is a part of the Surma-Meghna river system.

It is expected that the plying of ships will be made easier from Calcutta via Bangladesh throughout the year after dredging.

The businessmen will mainly benefit and the transportation cost of goods will also be minimised, said a trader in Karimganj. He added that the economy of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura would also get a boost.

Social worker Nirmalya Das said they had demanded the running of ships via Bangladesh during the time of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.

The Bangladesh government has agreed to bear 30 per cent cost of the dredging.