Foundation laid for India’s first riverine lighthouses

GUWAHATI The Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, on Thursday (March 5, 2026), laid the foundation stones for the first riverine lighthouses in the country.

He initiated the work on four such lighthouses from Lachit Ghat in Guwahati. These lighthouses are located strategically along the Brahmaputra River, which is National Waterway-2.

“The lighthouses at Pandu (western edge of Guwahati), Silghat, Biswanath Ghat, and Bogibeel signal a major shift towards 24-hour navigation on India’s inland waterways,” Mr. Sonowal said.

The project, estimated at approximately ₹84 crore, is a joint venture between the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) and the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).

Three of these lighthouses will be on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra and one (Biswanath Ghat) on the northern bank.

According to the blueprint, each lighthouse will be 20 metres tall and entirely solar-powered. The lighthouses have been designed with a geographical range of 14 nautical miles and a luminous range of 8-10 nautical miles.

Mr. Sonowal said that the lighthouse sites are being developed as “tourism landmarks” featuring museums, amphitheatres, cafeterias, and landscaped public spaces.

High cargo movement

IWAI officials said that the initiative follows a 53% surge in cargo movement on the Brahmaputra during the 2024-25 fiscal and that the river has become a vital artery for Assam’s tea, coal, and fertiliser industries.

Mr. Sonowal said that water transport costs roughly one-third of road transport and half of rail. “These lighthouses are a statement of intent: that India’s rivers are open for business, round the clock,” he said, noting that moving freight by water significantly reduces carbon emissions and eases highway congestion.

The project was formalised through an April 2025 agreement between the IWAI and DGLL. Each structure is scheduled for completion within 24 months. By enabling safe night-time transit, the government aims to remove the primary barrier to continuous waterway operations.

National Waterway-2 stretches 891 km from Dhubri on the border with Bangladesh to Sadiya, bordering Arunachal Pradesh, representing the longest navigable stretch in the country.