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Transboundary waterways in Northeast India provide a strategic conduit for trade, regional integration, and sustainable development, linking the region to mainland India and Southeast Asia
Transboundary waterways in Northeast India offer a relatively untapped opportunity to reshape the region's position, strengthening trade connectivity, regional prosperity, and ecological security. Drawing on lessons from the Act East Policy as well as the current policy initiatives, it is imperative to understand how the transboundary rivers of Northeast India, such as the Brahmaputra, Barak, and Kaladan, among others, serve as strategic arteries connecting the region to mainland India and the rest of the world, promoting sustainable and inclusive growth. India’s Act East Policy, re-launched in 2014, represents a transformative approach to connecting Northeast India with the vibrant economies of Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific. Given the region’s challenging terrain and complex borders, enhancing transport corridors — especially through its rich river networks — is critical to unlocking economic potential, stimulating prosperity, and reinforcing India's strategic footing in the Indo-Pacific.
Given the region’s challenging terrain and complex borders, enhancing transport corridors — especially through its rich river networks — is critical to unlocking economic potential, stimulating prosperity, and reinforcing India's strategic footing in the Indo-Pacific.
Northeast India is uniquely endowed with a dense network of transboundary rivers, especially the Brahmaputra and Barak systems, which physically connect India with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and China. These rivers are not only ecological systems; they have historically functioned as trade arteries, enabling the movement of people, commodities, and cultural exchanges across borders long before modern highways or rail corridors existed. In recent years, strategic investments under the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) have revived this historic connectivity. Nearly 1,800 kilometres of river stretches have now been designated as national waterways, supported by terminals, dredging, cargo-handling infrastructure, and navigation systems. The Indo-Bangladesh Protocol routes have further opened direct waterborne trade between Northeast India and Bangladesh, enabling cargo movement to the Bay of Bengal and from there to the wider Southeast Asian markets.
These transboundary waterways, therefore, play a dual strategic role:
In this way, rivers in Northeast India are becoming central to a broader connectivity narrative, where waterways support regional trade, facilitate energy and commodity flows, and deepen cross-border economic integration.
The rivers of Assam, particularly the Brahmaputra and Barak, have historically sustained regional trade and connectivity. Although post-independence political changes impaired these water routes, recent initiatives under the National Waterways project have catalysed their revival. These rivers enable cost-effective and low-carbon cargo transport, carrying food grains, construction materials, fertilisers, and bamboo. Pandu Port in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, has traditionally been a crucial point where the Brahmaputra River was extensively used for navigation within the state and for trade between India and Bangladesh. The Indo-Bangladesh Protocol enhances Assam’s access to Bangladesh’s sea ports, easing pressure on land routes such as the Siliguri Corridor. Communities along the riverbanks increasingly participate in regional trade, with value chains developing for fruits, spices, and handicrafts supported by these navigable waterways. For instance, the transboundary Jinjiram River between India and Bangladesh serves as a trade route for the local populace, facilitating border markets.
River-based trade in Assam and Mizoram exemplifies a harmonious blend of economic progress and environmental stewardship. Inland water transport has a significantly lower carbon footprint than road transport.
The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMMTTP) symbolises the modernisation and integration ambitions of the Act East Policy. By linking Mizoram to Myanmar’s Sittwe port through river and road networks, the project shortens transit distances and reduces transportation costs. This corridor facilitates the export of Mizoram’s agricultural and artisanal products to wider markets and promotes greater cultural and economic integration between Northeast India and Southeast Asia. Importantly, the environmental safeguards incorporated into the project ensure alignment with ecological sustainability goals, protecting Mizoram’s biodiversity throughout the trade expansion process.
River-based trade in Assam and Mizoram exemplifies a harmonious blend of economic progress and environmental stewardship. Inland water transport has a significantly lower carbon footprint than road transport. Community-driven trade models, particularly in Assam, engage local boat operators and cooperative groups, fostering livelihoods while safeguarding riverine ecosystems. In Mizoram, eco-friendly port infrastructure and the integration of traditional water management practices further exemplify this commitment to sustainable trade. These approaches ensure that economic gains do not compromise fisheries, wetlands, or biodiversity critical to the region’s long-term resilience.
Waterways of Northeast India are increasingly impacted by climate change-induced extreme weather events. Erratic rainfall, recurrent floods, and prolonged droughts disrupt navigability, damage river infrastructure, and jeopardise trade continuity. For instance, unpredictable flooding of the Brahmaputra causes river course shifts and erosion, leading to costly interruptions. Similarly, lack of rainfall can affect transportation. Heavy sedimentation in the floodplains also often disrupts navigation. These climatic shifts further threaten the ecosystems that support agriculture and regional livelihoods. The future climate change scenario over the Brahmaputra River basin looks alarming, with the increased occurrence of various extreme events. Addressing these challenges requires integrated water resource management, climate-resilient infrastructure design, and basin-wide multilateral coordination for effective flood management and drought mitigation.
Addressing these challenges requires integrated water resource management, climate-resilient infrastructure design, and basin-wide multilateral coordination for effective flood management and drought mitigation.
Increased connectivity also carries the risks of illegal activities such as smuggling and wildlife trafficking. Northeast India’s rich biodiversity, including endangered species, makes it vulnerable to exploitative illicit trade practices, often routed through transboundary land and water routes. The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and KMMTTP cross the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, where various endemic species thrive. Preventing illegal trade requires vigilant monitoring using satellite surveillance, regular river patrolling, and intelligence sharing between nations. These strategies are essential to ensure that rivers remain secure conduits for lawful commerce.
Northeast India lies in a highly geopolitical and strategically sensitive region. Therefore, developing its waterways is not merely a transport question; it is linked to national security, regional diplomacy, economic integration, and ecological stability.
Sustained, long-term investment is required to upgrade and modernise waterway infrastructure, including digital navigation systems, real-time monitoring, and climate-resilient technologies that can function under flood, erosion, and sediment-shift conditions. Equally important is strengthening regional water cooperation among the riparian states, so that river management becomes collaborative rather than fragmented. This cooperation must not remain only at the state or ministerial level; local governments, river communities, traders, and transport operators must be integrated into the governance architecture. Their lived realities are where hydrological risk, border trade, and everyday mobility actually occur.
Local governments, river communities, traders, and transport operators must be integrated into the governance architecture. Their lived realities are where hydrological risk, border trade, and everyday mobility actually occur.
Because of the sensitive border environment, legal frameworks, surveillance systems, and joint enforcement mechanisms must also be strengthened to prevent cross-border smuggling and wildlife trafficking, issues that are already prevalent along river corridors. Integrating waterways with road and rail infrastructure, particularly under the Act East Policy, will help create seamless logistics. Aligning these corridors with wider economic policies (such as Production-Linked Incentive schemes) can support export-oriented value chains and reduce logistical costs. Further, border haats/markets, where people across borders informally trade via waterways, must be recognised and supported, as they are small but vital nodes of peace-building, livelihoods, and people-to-people diplomacy.
Finally, ecological conservation and climate adaptation must be integral to the development of waterways, not added later. River ecosystems are fragile, and any development agenda must balance growth with environmental stewardship. Addressing challenges around sediment balance, wetland protection, biodiversity loss, erosion, climate-induced river shifts, and illegal trade along waterways will determine whether these river systems become engines of sustainable prosperity or sources of future conflict and degradation. A transformative pathway requires that waterways in Northeast India be developed as connectors of economic opportunity, climate resilience, security cooperation, and ecological preservation, simultaneously. Only then can they foster peaceful coexistence and shared regional prosperity.
Anamika Barua is a Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Guwahati.
Rupam Bhaduri is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Disaster Management and Research, IIT Guwahati.
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Anamika Barua is a Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG), India, and a Visiting ...
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Rupam Bhaduri is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Disaster Management and Research, IIT Guwahati. Currently, his postdoctoral research centres on socio-hydrology, community research, ...
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