The Assam Legislative Assembly has passed a bill to create a regulatory authority that will streamline inland water transport in the state, The Assam Tribune reported on Wednesday.

The Inland Water Transport Regulatory Authority Bill, which was passed on Tuesday, will aim to improve water transport and safety in the state by bringing all mechanically-propelled vessels under a standardised set of operating norms. “The new Act will be applicable to all mechanically-propelled boats irrespective of whether they run for commercial or non-commercial purposes,” Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said. Engine-fitted boats are widely used for travel across the state.

Many Opposition members, however, objected to the inclusion of non-commercial boats because several people were completely dependent on their personal country boats and enforcing norms on those vessels would lead to harassment. “Many poor people in these areas use their boats for different personal purposes on a daily basis, such as commuting, carrying their children to schools, carrying their produce to home and markets,” said Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed. “It will be preposterous to bring these vessels under the ambit of the rigorous norms of the proposed Act.”

But Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said the proposed authority will also take into account the complaints of the Opposition members over certain provisions of the legislation. He was endorsing Patowary’s comments on the matter.

Assam is no stranger to boat accidents. The worst in recent memory took place in 2012 when a steamer carrying over 300 people sank in Dhuburi, killing at least 100 people. More recently, last month, at least three people died and 26 were injured after a boat carrying 40 passengers capsized in the Brahmaputra river. Only 22 passengers had valid tickets on the vessel that was also carrying 18 two-wheelers. The state government had initiated an inquiry to find out if the boat operator flouted norms.

After the 2012 accident too, then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had directed the additional secretary Jitesh Khosla to investigate the accident. Khosla submitted his report within 30 days. But six years later, none of his recommendations were put into effect despite several accidents. These accidents exposed the state’s broken inland water transport system, and showed that there was a shortage of safe vessels, lax regulation and the Inland Water Transport, the department responsible for all riverine communication in Assam, was allegedly corrupt.

Patowary on Tuesday reiterated that the government took no action on the recommendations of the Khosla Committee, and that over the years, all norms and rules were being flouted by operators, jeopardising commuters’ safety.

“However, I do not want to blame any single political party as all the governments by different parties over the decades had done little to put some semblance of order in the chaos and lawlessness that marks the functioning of our inland water transport,” he said.