Indian tourist cruise launch MV Ganga Vilas has entered Bangladesh's Sundarbans and is scheduled to arrive at Mongla.
The tourist cruise launch entered Bangladesh through the Sundarbans maritime border at around 12:30pm on Friday. It will arrive at Mongla port jetty on Saturday afternoon.
The Mongla port authorities have prepared a reception to welcome the ship on arrival at the jetty. Various preparations have been made to welcome the tourists on board the launch.
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahamud Chowdhury, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma and Mongla Port Chairman along with officials will be present at the reception.
A team from Coast Guard West Zone has been deployed to ensure safety during travel from the border to Sundarbans waterways.
Ganga Vilas started its journey from Baransi, Uttar Pradesh, India, on January 13.
On that day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the cruise virtually.
Most passengers on the cruise launch are citizens of Switzerland. They will visit various places including the shrine of Khan Jahan Ali by road from Mongla port. Later they will return to the port jetty.
Then via Barisal, the launch will stop at Meghna Ghat, will travel to Sonargaon and Dhaka, then will visit Chilmari in Kurigram and Rangpur via Tangail and Sirajganj and enter India from Chilmari.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) will give total assistance throughout the period.
Over a period of 51 days, MV Ganga Vilas will cross through 27 different river systems in five states in India as well as Bangladesh.
It will also cover a distance of 3,200km between Varanasi and Dibrugarh via the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route – an inland water transit and trade protocol that exists between India and Bangladesh, under which inland vessels of one country can transit through specified routes of the other country, according to Indian media.
The luxury cruise launch has three decks, 18 suites on board with a capacity of 36 tourists, with all the amenities.
The cruise is planned with visits to 50 tourist spots including world heritage sites, national parks, river ghats, and major cities like Patna in Bihar, Sahibganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata in West Bengal, Dhaka in Bangladesh and Guwahati in Assam.
The price of MV Ganga Vilas cruise per day will be around 25,000 to 50,000 rupees. The overall cost of the entire trip is around 20 lakh rupees per passenger, reports Livemint.
