Guwahati: India intends to start the largest river cruise in the world in January 2023 between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Dibrugarh in Assam in an effort to promote interior waterways.
The “Ganga Vilas” ship will travel 4,000 kilometres over the course of its 50-day trip, passing in Bangladesh.
The tour will commence on January 10 and end in Dibrugarh on March 1 after stopping in Kolkata and Dhaka. A PPP model is anticipated to be used during the cruise. For this, Antara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises have signed a MoU with the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI). According to reports, the operators would choose the admission price without consulting the Center.
The voyage will depart from Varanasi and arrive in Patna on the eighth day. On the twentieth day, it will arrive in Kolkata from there. It will take a day’s break before setting sail once more towards Bangladesh, where it will spend 15 days before returning to India and arriving at Bogibeel (Dibrugarh).
“The Ganga Vilas cruise will travel the longest river route of 50 days from Varanasi to Dibrugarh, traversing 27 river systems and stopping at more than 50 tourist destinations, including world heritage sites. This will be the world’s largest river voyage made by a single river ship, and it will put Bangladesh and India on the global river cruise map “Sarbananda Sonowal, the minister of ports, shipping, and waterways, said.
“All types of visitors will be made comfortable by the service. Moreover, cruise companies would have a national permit to travel freely between states thanks to the revision to the Indian Vessel Act ” Sonowal added.
The government prioritises coastal and river shipping, including cruise services, as it works to establish a network of shipping routes to lower the cost of freight transportation in the nation.
The 1,100 mile voyage of the ship via the neighbouring nation will be made easier by the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route. The Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers are connected by this route, which has already created new commercial and transportation routes between the two nations.