The World’s Longest River Cruise of 4,000 km Varanasi to Dibrugarh

Ganga Vilas Cruise, the world's longest luxury river cruise, covering a distance of 4,000 kilometers will set sail early next year in January, announced by Sarbananda Sonowal, union minister of ports, shipping, and waterways.

The maiden river voyage will commence on January 13, 2023, from the holy city of Varanasi in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and will end in Dibrugarh, Assam, a northeastern state on March 1.

The minister informed that the cruise ship will also be passing through Bangladesh, covering 1,100 kilometers, en route to Assam, bringing both nations closer in the process.

Sonowal tweeted, "The world's longest river cruise will commence its journey in Jan next year. Ganga Vilas will set sail from sacred Varanasi to Dibrugarh via Bangladesh covering 4,000 km on the two greatest rivers of India, Ganga & Brahmaputra. Watch."

The highlights of the cruise trip will include witnessing the mesmerising 'Ganga Aarti', traversing through the Sundarban (the world's largest mangrove forest), and visiting Mayong, the cradle of 'black magic' in India.

The ship will pass through three major waterways viz. the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River system, the Indo-Bangla Protocol Route (Kolkata-Dhubri), and National Waterway 2 over Brahmaputra.

Sonowal added that in addition to promoting passenger traffic on rivers," the development of inland waterway systems would expedite trade and cargo services and attract tourists along its route.”

Key points about India’s longest river cruise to Sail from Varanasi in January 2023:

• The world’s longest luxury river cruise or the Ganga Vilas cruise will sail from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in the longest river journey of 50 days.
• The 50 days long journey will cover 27 river systems and visit over 50 tourist sites including World Heritage Sites.
• The journey of the world’s longest luxury river cruise will be the single largest river journey by a single river ship in the world.
• This journey will also put India and Bangladesh on the river cruise map of the world.
• The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal informed that the development of coastal and rover shipping includes cruise services which is one of the priorities of the government.
• He also informed that more such services would be launched to tap the country’s enormous potential in this area.
• The development of Inland Waterways systems would also facilitate trade and cargo services.
• This will boost tourism around the area along with its routes.
• The Varanasi-Dibrugarh cruise is expected to be run on a PPP model with the MoU to run the first set of cruise liners signed between the Island Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Anatara Luxury River Cruises and JM Baxi River Cruises.
• The operators will decide the ticket price based on a cost-plus basis with no intervention from the Centre.