Cruise tourism will unlock river economy: Modi launches 'MV Ganga Vilas'

Government planning initiatives to develop inland waterways across country, he says

Cruise tourism and the development of inland waterways will boost trade and create employment, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday as he flagged off the world’s longest river cruise in Varanasi.

'MV Ganga Vilas' will affirm India’s place on the world’s tourism map, he said. The 52-day luxury cruise, passing through 27 river systems, will cover a distance of 3,200 km from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Dibrugarh in Assam, via Bangladesh.

The cruise features 18 suites, three decks, and other amenities for tourists. The maiden voyage hosts 32 Swiss nationals.

“We are preparing many such initiatives for cruise tourism in inland waterways across the country by incentivising both long- and short-distance cruises in various cities,” said Modi at the inauguration, which was attended by chief ministers and union ministers.

Modi laid the foundation stones for inland waterways projects worth more than Rs 1,000 crore. He said the projects will help in making eastern India a growth engine for the country. He inaugurated the Haldia multimodal terminal connecting with Varanasi and links with Northeast India. The projects will foster connectivity with ports in Kolkata and Bangladesh.

Senior civil servants said the river cruise will send industries a message that India’s waterways are viable for cargo transport, giving a fillip to the modal shift in logistics that the Centre has been aiming to achieve for years.

“A study shows that using waterways instead of road transport can save costs up to two and a half times, while the cost of using waterways is one-third of that using railways,” Modi said. “Not only are waterways environment-friendly, they’re also cost-efficient,” he added.

The global river cruise market has grown more than 5 per cent in the last few years and is expected to constitute over 37 per cent of the cruise market by 2027, according to the union ministry of ports, shipping, and waterways.

“In India, eight river cruise vessels are operational between Kolkata and Varanasi while cruise movement is also operational on National Waterways (NW)-2 (Brahmaputra). The construction of 10 passenger terminals across NW-2 are going on which will further bolster the prospect of river cruise. As the capital expenditure is pumped to build capacity in the inland waterways, the river cruise is set to grow further with systematic forward and backward linkage for the economy, especially across the banks of the rivers,” said the ministry in a statement.