World's longest river cruise thru India, Bangladesh flagged off 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off the world's longest river cruise, MV Ganga Vilas, which will travel 3,200 kilometres of waterway in India and Bangladesh, covering 27 river systems in the two countries.

According to an official statement, the 36-passenger-capacity cruise will undertake a 51-day journey, with visits to 50 tourist spots, including world heritage sights, parks, river ghats, and major cities like Kolkata and Dhaka.

The whole cruise from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Dibrugarh in Assam via Bangladesh will cost $15,300 per person, reports the Hindu. The cost will be $300 for a day.

After virtually launching the private cruise vessel, Narendra Modi said, "The beginning of the world's longest river cruise service is a landmark moment."

Emphasising the need to build a modern multi-modal network of waterways with Bangladesh and other countries, he further added that waterways are not just beneficial to the environment but also help in saving money. 

"In the entire journey, the ship will stay in Bangladesh for 14 days; from 4-17 February for the first trip," said Taufiq Rahman, chief executive of Journey Plus, which is responsible for conducting the trip for the Bangladesh part.

"We will provide ground handling and shore excursion services," he told The Business Standard and noted that the privately-operated luxurious three-deck cruise ship has all facilities of a five-star category hotel.

"Tourists will feel the ship like their home as they will stay on it for a long time." 

"We have received a list of 29 passengers out of 32 [for the first trip]. They are from Switzerland and mostly old-aged," Taufiq Rahman said and added that 15 have started the journey from Varanasi and the rest will be from Kolkata. 

The cruise will cover almost 1,100km in Bangladesh before re-entering India under the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade.

"Though the cruise ship is coming from India, most tourists are from outside South Asia. Hence, the cruise would promote Bangladesh tourist attractions abroad," Commodore Golam Sadeq, chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, told TBS.

Bangladeshi tourism operators will also be encouraged to invest in such ventures, he added.

Earlier, in a recent event, Indian Union Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said this cruise will be the single largest river journey by a single river ship in the world which will put both India and Bangladesh on the river cruise map of the world, several Indian media outlets reported. 

According to Journey Plus, cruisers will visit Sundarbans, 60 Dome Mosque in Bagerhat, tourist spots in Barishal, historic places in Sonargaon and Dhaka, Atiya Mosque in Tangail and other places during the 14-day-Bangladesh-visit.

It also noted that there will be two more cruises between Guwahati and Dhaka in May and October next.