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The ambitious cruise is planned to visit upto 50 tourist spots, including World Heritage Sights, National Parks, river Ghats, and major cities like Patna in Bihar, Sahibganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Guwahati in Assam. In Bangladesh, the cruise will travel approximately 1,100 kilometres.
The stopovers at spots of historical, cultural, and religious importance have been curated to showcase the rich heritage of India. The expected date of arrival of MV Ganga Vilas in Dibrugarh is on March 1, 2023.
The cruise had left Kolkata on December 22, and reached Ramnagar port in Varanasi on Tuesday. “This will be a unique cruise in the world and a reflection of growing cruise tourism in India. I request that the people of West Bengal take advantage of this,” PM Modi said on Thursday.
The cruise will stay on Bangladesh rivers for a fortnight and thereafter will return to India via Guwahati and reach Dibrugarh. This vessel will also pass through national parks and sanctuaries, including Sundarban Delta and Kaziranga National Park.
The cruise will be flagged off from the jetty boarding point opposite to Ravidas Ghat. The cruise will have a capacity of 80 passengers with 18 suits.
People are eagerly awaiting the unveiling of the cruise and are lauding efforts made by the Modi government. “The Ganga Vilas cruise will have foreign nationals and it will send a message to the people of the world on India’s tourism and this cruise will be very helpful in attracting tourists,” news agency ANI quoted Sunil Upadhyay, a resident of Varanasi, as saying.
Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma and District Magistrate S Rajalingam have given necessary instructions in light of the flagging off ceremony to the officials of Culture department, Tourism department and Inland Waterways Transport.
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