New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on January 13 flag off the river cruise, which has been billed as the world’s longest, from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh, billed as the world’s longest, will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 13.
The luxury cruise will cover around 4,000 km of 27 river systems including Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly, Brahmaputra and West Coast Canal in India in a span of 50 days, TOI reported.
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“This will be a unique cruise in the world and a reflection of growing cruise tourism in India. I request people of West Bengal to take the benefit of this,” PM Modi said on Friday.
The PM further said that the cruise will start its first voyage on January 13.
The cruise will cover 50 major tourist sites, including some heritage sites, the famous Ganga Aarti at Varanasi and sanctuaries such as Kaziranga National Park and the Sundarbans Delta.
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The cruise will travel 1,100 km in Bangladesh.
A senior official of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the agency responsible for National Waterways (NWs), said the cruise operated by a private player will be a regular feature.
“Because of the increased focus of the government on development and maintenance of inland waterways, we have taken up several projects to increase the depth, set up necessary navigation facilities and jetties for the successful operation of both passenger and cargo vessels,” TOI quoted an IWAI official as saying.
Earlier, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal had said the Ganga Vilas cruise will sail from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in the longest river journey of 50 days covering 27 river systems and visit over 50 tourist sites including World Heritage Sites.
The Minister had added that this will be the single largest river journey by a river ship in the world put both India and Bangladesh on cruise map of the world.
The cruise is the first set of cruise liners that will run on a PPP model with the memorandum of understanding signed between the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Antara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises.