Kolkata, Dec 1 (IANS): Following its first shipment of 250 tonnes of packed edible oils from Haldia port to Agartala via inland waterways, Emami Agrotech Ltd expects to ship around 6,000-7,000 tonnes of the oil per annum using the same route, Company CEO Sudhakar Desai said on Friday.

The company made its first shipment of 250 tonnes from Haldia Port to Agartala on Brahmaputra river via Bangladesh.

The vessel has already reached Ashuganj port in Bangladesh and the stocks have now started moving on trucks to Agartala.

He also said that the company would continue to explore innovative ways of transportation using the vast inland waterways within India and has plans to extend this model to Guwahati, Patna and Allahabad.

According to the company, its partnership with Inland Waterways of India in facilitating alternate connective means that has significant business volume for the firm.

The company said floods in Bengal, which resulted in derailment of road and rail transportation due to track and bridge damages on the Siliguri corridor, caused shortage of critical commodities and highlighted the vulnerability to access the Northeast from the mainland in times of calamities.

In view of this, the company took up the multi-modal transportation mode by leveraging waterways to connect Northeast India with West Bengal.

This river route will be navigable in all seasons and offers an efficient and effective way of transporting goods to these areas where there are lot of obstacles in road movement due to difficult terrain of the Northeast, it added.