New Delhi: The Central government plans to launch the world’s longest luxury river cruise in the new year.
The 4,000 km cruise, from Varanasi in UP to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh, will cover 5 states, 2 countries (India and Bangladesh), 2 rivers (Ganga and Brahmaputra).
The luxury cruise, to start on January 10 and end on March 1, will boost the development of inland waterways in India.
“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. This will be the single largest river journey by a single river ship in the world and would put both India and Bangladesh on the river cruise map of the world,” Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said in an interview with Mint.
The Varanasi-Dibrugarh cruise will be run on a public-private partnership (PPP) model. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has signed an agreement with Antara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises for the project.
