The ship, MV Ganga Vilas, will sail across 27 river systems in India and Bangladesh, with the journey packed with visits to 50 tourist spots including World Heritage spots, national parks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on January 13 flag off the 51-day luxury Ganga cruise from Varanasi to Dibrugarh, via Bangladesh, a 3,200-km river voyage being pitched as the world’s longest.
The ship, MV Ganga Vilas, will sail across 27 river systems in India and Bangladesh, with the journey packed with visits to 50 tourist spots including World Heritage spots, national parks.
According to a government statement issued Sunday, the cruise ship will pass through major cities like Patna in Bihar, Sahibganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Guwahati in Assam, before reaching Dibrugarh, where it is expected to arrive on March
“This will herald a new age of river cruise tourism for India,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, adding that the idea is to explore the immense wealth that the country’s rich river system has to offer.
MV Ganga Vilas has three decks, 18 suites on board with a capacity of 36 tourists, with all the luxury amenities. The maiden voyage has 32 tourists from Switzerland signing up for the entire length of the journey. The tourists will board the cruise on January 10 and complete local sightseeing, before the ship sets sail from Varanasi on January 13.
The journey will cost approximately Rs 25,000 per person per day, the operators told.
While the cruise is being managed by private operators, the Inland Waterways Authority of India, under the Ministry of Shipping, Ports and Waterways, has supported the project.
The Ganga cruise will make pit-stops to cover various historical, cultural and religious spots, including the famous Ganga Arti in Varanasi, the Buddhist site of Sarnath; and even Majuli, the largest river island in Assam.
The travellers will also visit the Bihar School of Yoga and Vikramshila University. The cruise will also traverse through the Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal delta, as well as Kaziranga National Park.
Highlighting the need to develop river cruise tourism in the country, Sonowal said that the sector would generate employment opportunities in the hinterland. He said the river tourism circuits will be developed and integrated with the existing tourism circuits for maximum exposure and rapid development of this sector in the country.
