Assam Inland Water Transport Development Society launches AI-powered Grievance Redressal Forum

Guwahati, May 7: In an attempt to ensure safe and comfortable navigation for passengers and vessels across length and breadth of Assam’s Inland Water Transport sector, the Assam Government on Saturday launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Grievance Redressal Management portal, to address grievances of Inland water users in a timely and efficient manner.

Parimal Suklabaidya, Minister of Transport, Govt of Assam, unveiled the first-of-its-kind GRM website and android-based mobile interface for Inland Waterways users of Assam in presence of Gaurav Upadhyay (IPS), State Project Director of Assam Inland Water Transport Development Society(AIWTDS); Partha Pegu (ACS), Additional State Project Director of AIWTDS; Rahul Chandra Das (ACS), Deputy State Project Director of AIWTDS along with other AIWTDS officials at Janata Bhavan in Dispur, Guwahati .

In a press release issued by the AIWTDS, it has been mentioned that the newly developed GRM portal will enable myriads of Inland Waterways users from across the state to register and track their grievances, in an efficient and less time consuming manner through the website aiwtds.in, WhatsApp number - 9287997525 and toll free number – 18008894717. The registered grievances will also be addressed in a systemic way, wherein it will be aligned within a stipulate timeline and accordingly the concerned authority/GRO will be looped in at each stages of the complaint.

The Grievance Redressal Management portal of AIWTDS i.e aiwtds.in has been developed with a multilingual website interface in English, Assamese and Bengali, enabling users to choose the language as per their convenience for better accessibility and service.

Citizens can register their complaints directly through the website by filling up the category, sub category of grievance addressed, along with their personal details e.g. contact number, name, location etc. The category and sub category will be tracked according to the project phases, in the backend and an analytical report of the nature of the complaint can be monitored in the AIWTDS agents dashboard, read the release.

The GRM mechanism of AIWTDS will enable redressal of different types of citizen centric issues related to Project & Survey, Land Acquisition & Compensation, Gender based violence, eticketing services, Health & Safety, Safe Navigation, amongst others.

The Assam Government with financial aid from World Bank has taken up the Assam Inland Water Transport (AIWT) project to improve the quality of inland waterways transport by integrating high quality passenger and vehicle ferry services in Brahmaputra and Barak rivers, to ensure a safe, sustainable and reliable mode of transport for myriads of commuters across the state. To modernize Assam’s IWT sector, the World Bank is financing/assisting state government through a phase- wise project, which includes up gradation of ferry Infrastructure, Fleet Modernization, institutional capacity development etc.

A society in the name and style of ‘Assam Inland Water Transport Development Society’ has been formed by GoA under the Transport Department, to support implementation of the WB Project. In an attempt to weave sustainability into the state’s climate agenda, the project will not only promote the use of Inland Waterways as an eco-friendly, cost-effective, and convenient mode of transport for netizens but also drive regional & economic development for Assam and its neighbouring states.