Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the world’s longest river cruise , which will travel from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh on January 13.
According to reports, in 50 days the luxury boat will travel 4,000 kilometres along 27 river systems in India, including the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly, Brahmaputra, and West Coast Canal. The prime minister launched many projects for West Bengal via video conference on Friday, “I ask the people of West Bengal to benefit from this,” he remarked.
The Prime Minister said that this will be a trip like no other in the world, reflecting the booming cruise industry in India. He added that the cruise’s inaugural journey would depart on January 13.
As per further reports, 50 significant tourist destinations will be visited throughout the journey, including some historical monuments, the iconic Varanasi Ganga Aarti, and protected areas like Kaziranga National Park and the Sundarbans Delta during the cruise.
According to officials, In Bangladesh, the trip will cover over 1,100 kilometres. The cruise run by a private player would be a regular fixture, according to a senior official of the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the organisation in charge of National Waterways .
The planning of the cruise service was significantly influenced by the growth of the India-Bangladesh Protocol route according to officials .
The Prime Minister stated that the Center has been tasked with creating 100 national waterways to see world-class cruises running on these rivers in addition to cargo flow.
Sarbananda Sonowal, the minister of shipping and waterways, recently stated that one of the government’s top priorities is the growth of coastal and river shipping, particularly cruise services.
