Country's longest river cruise will run from Varanasi in January 2023

Tags: National National News

The Union Government has proposed to start the world's longest river cruise between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Dibrugarh in Assam by January 2023.

Important facts

• The 50-day cruise will set sail from Varanasi on 10 January and cover 4,000 km, passing through Kolkata and Dhaka before reaching Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district of Assam on 1 March.

• The name of the  cruise is Ganga Vilas, which will sail from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in a longest river journey of 50 days covering 27 river systems and visit over 50 tourist sites including World Heritage Sites.

• This will be the largest river cruise by a single river ship in the world and will put both India and Bangladesh on the river cruise map of the world.

• Development of coastal and river shipping including cruise services is one of the priorities of the government and more such services will be introduced to tap the vast potential of the country in this sector.

• The cruise is run on a PPP model with an MoU signed between the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Antara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises.

• River cruises are already operating on National Waterway-1 (NW-1 Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly), National Waterway-2 (Brahmaputra) and National Waterway-3 (West Coast Canal).