Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate
the world's longest river cruise, which will travel from Varanasi in Uttar
Pradesh to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh on January 13th luxury boat will
travel 4,000 kilometers along 27 river systems in India including the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly, Brahmaputra,
and West Coast Canal in 50 days.
50
significant tourist destinations will be covered 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.
In Bangladesh, the trip will cover over
1,100 kilometers. 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 (NWs).
According to
officials, the planning of the cruise service was significantly influenced by
the growth of the India-Bangladesh Protocol route.
Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of Shipping
and Waterways, said the government's top priority is the growth of coastal and
river shipping, particularly cruise services.