Known as the holy city of India, Uttar Pradesh is all set for the launch of the cruise to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangalore, which will be the longest river voyage in the world on January 10, 2023. To encourage the development of the nation’s inland waterways, the central government has proposed to launch the longest luxury river cruise in the world.

Minister of Ports, shipping, and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal said that the voyage, Ganga Vilas will sail from the port of Varanasi to Dibrugarh in a period of 50 days. The journey will cover 27 river systems while visiting more than 50 tourist sites, including the World Heritage Sites. The Minister continued by stating that this will be the largest river trip ever undertaken by a river ship, putting Bangladesh and India on the map of major cruise destinations. Additionally, the 50-day trip will pass by protected areas including the Sundarbans Delta and Kaziranga National Park.

The world’s longest river cruise will start its journey in January of next year, tweeted Sarbanand Sonowal on Twitter about the Ganga Vilas Cruise. Ganga Vilas will travel 4,000 kilometres on the two largest rivers in India, the Ganga and Brahmaputra, from holy Varanasi to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh, according to the tweet by the minister. At a ceremony on Friday at Ravidas Ghat in Varanasi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal released the cruise ship’s schedule. The ship will set out on its first voyage from Varanasi on January 10 and arrive in Dibrugarh on March 1.

The cruise will leave from Varanasi and will travel through Buxar, Ramnagar, and Ghazipur before arriving in Patna on the eighth day. It will make more than 50 architecturally significant stops over its 50-day tour, including world heritage sites. The ship travels via three significant waterways: National Waterway 1, which crosses the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system; Indo-Bangla Protocol Route, which travels from Kolkata to Dhubri across several Bangladeshi rivers; and National Waterway 2, which crosses the Brahmaputra.

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The world’s longest river cruise will start its journey in January of next year.

The cruise will depart from Varanasi over the Ganga, enter the Hooghly River at Farakka, and travel downstream through Kolkata to the Sunderbans. The trip will travel through a variety of the Ganga and Brahmaputra-formed Megha river’s many channels, which make up the largest delta in the world. The voyage will depart from Sunderbans and begin floating upstream on the rivers covered by the Indo-Bangla Protocol Route, primarily the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries, which are known by a variety of names in Bangladesh. The trip will cover the whole west-to-east length of Assam across the Brahmaputra from Dhubri to Dibrugarh, travelling approximately 1,100 kilometres through Bangladesh before returning to India.

Observing the historic ‘Ganga Aarti,’ enjoying the natural beauties of the largest mangrove forest in the world, visiting Mayong, India’s birthplace of ‘black magic,’ and discovering the huge cultural wealth of the largest river island in the world are some of the tour’s highlights.

The expansion of coastal and river shipping, including cruise services, is one of the government’s key goals, according to Sonowal, and doing so will enable India to fully realise its potential in this region.

Additionally, Minister Sonowal stated that the cruise service will accommodate all types of people with different mindsets. He claimed that there are numerous types of cruises, including luxury, excursions, etc. Visitors have different attitudes; some may want to travel from one location to another, while others would prefer to stay for the duration of the trip. All types of tourists will be helped by the service.

The cruise will be the first group of cruise ships to operate on a PPP model after a memorandum of agreement was signed by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), Antara Luxury River Cruises, and JM Baxi River Cruises. The cost of the tickets will be decided by the cruise companies independently. According to Antara Cruises, the Ganga Vilas cruise will have 18 suites and additional amenities like LED TV, smoke detectors, life vests, sprinklers, French balconies, convertible beds, a 40-seater restaurant, a spa, and sundecks. It will also have other facilities like a 40-seat restaurant, a spa, and sundecks.