World’s longest river cruise set sail from Varanasi to Assam in Jan
First Published: 12th November, 2022 9:22 IST
The government plans to launch the world’s longest luxury river cruise next year, from Varanasi to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh, in the hopes of spurring inland waterway development in India. The
The government plans to launch the world’s longest luxury river cruise next year, from Varanasi to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh, in the hopes of spurring inland waterway development in India.
The 50-day cruise will depart from Varanasi on January 10 and travel 4,000 kilometres, passing through Kolkata and Dhaka before arriving in Bogibeel, Assam’s Dibrugarh district, on March 1.
“The Ganga Vilas cruise will sail from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in 50 days, covering 27 river systems and visiting over 50 tourist sites, including World Heritage Sites.” This will be the world’s largest river journey by a single river ship, putting both India and Bangladesh on the river cruise map,” said Sarbananda Sonowal, minister of ports, shipping, and waterways, in an interview.
He stated that one of the government’s priorities is the development of coastal and river shipping, including cruise services, and that more such services would be launched to capitalise on the country’s enormous potential in this area.
The Varanasi-Dibrugarh cruise is expected to be run on a PPP model, with a memorandum of understanding signed between the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Antara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises to operate the first set of cruise liners.
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The ticket price will be determined by the operators on a cost-plus basis, with no intervention from the Centre.
The cruise will travel nearly 1,100 kilometres through Bangladesh before returning to India. This will be accomplished through the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route, which already connects the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and has opened trade and transit channels between the two countries.
The Ganga Vilas cruise will depart from Varanasi on day one and arrive in Patna on day eight, passing through Buxar, Ramnagar, and Ghazipur.
It will arrive in Kolkata on Day 20 from Patna. The following day, it will set sail for Bali, Bangladesh, where it will spend 15 days before returning to India and arriving in Bogibeel (Dibrugarh) 31 days after leaving Kolkata.
River cruises are already available on National Waterway 1 (Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hoogly), NW-2 (Brahmaputra), and NW-3 (West Coast Canal).
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