Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off the world’s longest river cruise “Ganga Vilas” from Varanasi through video conferencing with a message to the foreign tourists to “experience India by heart.”
“India has everything that you can imagine. It has a lot beyond your imagination. India cannot be defined in words. It can only be experienced from the heart,” Modi said in his message as the maiden voyage of “Ganga Vilas” will be carrying 32 Swiss tourists aboard the cruiser which will complete the 3,200 kilometre journey from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh in 51 days.
“The beginning of the world’s longest river cruise service on river Ganga is a landmark moment. It will herald a new age of tourism in India,” Modi said. He added that the cruise service would boost tourism and create new job opportunities.
The prime minister also inaugurated a ‘Tent City’, developed on the lines of similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan, on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi. Over 200 tents will offer tourists a panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city on the other side of the river along with live classical music, ‘aarti’ in the evening, and yoga sessions. He also laid the foundation for several inland waterways projects worth over ₹ 1,000 crore.
“With this cruise, many places of eastern India will now figure in world tourism map… What can be more unfortunate that since Independence the banks of the Ganga did not develop and thousands of people living along the Ganges had to migrate for job,” the PM said.
MV Ganga Vilas is the first cruise vessel to be made in India. It will travel 3,200 km in 51 days. The 32 tourists from Switzerland, who will take the first journey, were welcomed at the Varanasi port with garlands and tunes of shehnai. They will visit various religious and historical places in Varanasi before setting out on the cruise.
The cruise’s Director Raj Singh said the five-star moving hotel has 18 suites with the capacity of 36 tourists. Apart from this, it has accommodation for 40 crew members. The modernist ship is 62 meters in length and 12 meters wide and requires a draft of 1.4 meters. It will take tourists across 27 river systems and will cruise through various prominent destinations. According to a statement from Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh issued in Lucknow, the cruise will cover 50 tourist destinations including world heritage sites, national parks, river ghats, and major cities like Patna in Bihar, Shahibganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Guwahati in Assam.
The cruise has also been fitted with facilities such as spa, salon, and gym. It will cost ₹ 25,000 to ₹ 50,000 a day, with the total cost for the 51-day journey totalling to around ₹ 20 lakh for each passenger, Raj Singh said. The cruise is equipped with a pollution-free system and noise control technology, he added.
There is a Sewage Treatment Plant on this cruise so that no sewage flows into the Ganges, as well as a filtration plant which purifies the Ganga water for bathing and other purposes, the cruise director said.
“The journey will give the foreign tourists an opportunity to embark upon an experiential voyage and indulge in the art, culture, history, and spirituality of India and Bangladesh,” Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said.
The cruise will make pit-stops to cover 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 traverse through the Sunderbans in the Bay of Bengal delta, as well as the Kaziranga National Park.
While it will be managed by private operators, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), under the Ministry of Shipping, Ports and Waterways (MoPSW), has supported the project. The operator said they have already planned MV Ganga Vilas’s next voyage for the month of September this year, and bookings will open shortly. The tickets can be booked from the website of Antara river cruises.
Highlighting the need to develop river cruise tourism in the country, Sonowal said the sector would generate employment opportunities in the hinterland. He said the river tourism circuits would be developed and integrated with the existing tourism circuits for maximum exposure and rapid development of this sector in the country.