Centre to launch Luxury River Cruise service between Varanasi and Dibrugarh via Kolkata

The Centre will launch a luxury river cruise service between Varanasi and Dibrugarh via Kolkata in an effort to boost river cruise tourism in the country.

On Sunday, during the International Cruise Conference 2022 in Mumbai, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) signed two Memorandums of Understanding with Antara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises to introduce river cruise service between Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Bogibeel in Assam's Dibrugarh district.

The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal and the Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North-eastern Region and (DONER), Gangapuram Kisan Reddy were present at the historic event where eight major Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) were signed for boosting river cruise tourism in the country. He also inaugurated the Weeklong Photo exhibition to commemorate 150 years of Mumbai port in the conference.

It may be mentioned that the government has allocated ₹648.80 crores to develop ten projects under Coastal Thematic Circuits in order to boost cruise tourism in the country.

As many as eight MoUs signed between private players in the cruise tourism sector and the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Mumbai Port Authority in the conference on Sunday.

Among the eight MOU’s signed between the private players in the cruise tourism sector and the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) the important one being IWAI and Antara Luxury River Cruises for River Cruise between Varanasi (UP) and Bogibeel (Dibrugarh, Assam) via Kolkata under the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route.