I guess, not everyone has heard about this, The Ganga Vilas Cruise, as it is the longest river cruise in the world. This is luxury triple-deck cruise is built to travel on the world’s longest waterway runs from Varanasi to Dibrugarh in Assam. The cruise is covering 27 rivers. The Ganga Vilas cruise has been built with a futuristic vision in mind along with a unique design and architecture. This cruise will amble across various prominent tourist destinations that lie along Kolkata’s Hooghly River to Varanasi’s Ganges.
As we know that the Ganga Vilas Cruise is the world’s longest river cruise, and the fact is, the cruise is built over a distance of 3200km in 51 days. And, the Ganga Vilas cruise is covering a distance of long as 3200km in just 51 days. Furthermore, the cruise covered around 50 destinations, and according to the Uttar Pradesh tourism minister, issued that the cruise is set to cover 50 tourist destinations on its course which includes world heritage sites, national parks, and the river ghats.
It will also cover major cities in India like Patna, Sahib Ganj in Jharkhand, Kolkata, Guwahati in Assam, and also the neighboring country Dhaka in Bangladesh. The route connects the two major river systems Brahmaputra River system, and the Ganges River system via Bangladesh, and will cross the both Gangetic and Bengal Plains, as well as the beautiful Sundarbans and Assam Valley.
After knowing about the world’s longest cruise, the first thing that pops up in our mind is luxury things, meanwhile The Top-notch cruise amenities or special facilities such as salon, gym, and spa. The cruise is also facilitated with a pollution-free system and noise control technology. Also, the ticket price of the Ganga Vilas cruise per day would be estimated at around the range between 25,000 to 50,000 INR, per day. It is quite a high price but worth it. And if one wants to entire 51 days trip on the cruise then the overall cost would be around 20 Lakhs per person or each passenger. By the way, the carrying capacity of the luxurious ship is just 36 passengers.
Furthermore, to check the water pollution on a cruise, it has been designed with a built-in Sewage treatment plant so that no sewage flows into the Ganges directly. A filtration plant has also been made in the cruise to filter the impurities out of the water of the Ganges and make it suitable for bathing and other purposes. The MV Ganga Vilas is the first cruise vessel to be built in India.
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The first passengers to board the cruise are 32 tourists from Switzerland, who will board the vessel on its journey they were welcomed at the Varanasi port with garlands and melodious tunes. Tourists will first visit different religious and historical places in Varanasi before setting on the cruise.
If we talk about the accommodation facilities of the cruise, then there is a 5-star moving hotel available on the cruise which is studded with 18 suites with a capacity of 36 tourists. Apart from just passengers, it also has enough capacity to accommodate 40 crew members.
The Dimensions of the Ganga Vilas cruise are around 62m in length and have a width of 12m along with a draft of 1.4m. for the informative part, The PM inaugurated a Tent City on the banks of the Ganga in Varanasi, developed based on similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan. Over 200 tents have been developed there, which will offer the tourists an ambiguous panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city alongside the river.
The Ganga Vilas cruise service started after a delay of 2 years. Cruise Service was supposed to start in the year 2020, but due to the Covid pandemic across the world, it got delayed and now it has set sail on its journey from January 13th, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath said that all the tickets for Ganga Vilas have already been pre-booked for the next 2-3 years.
If you are looking for how to Book Ganga Vilas Cruise? Then go to the website of the cruise for the tickets that can be purchased from the official website of Antara Luxury River Cruises. Currently, bookings are closed since the ongoing voyage is already booked by a Switzerland company. The next voyage is most likely to be held in the month of September for which booking will open shortly, for more information you can check on the official site. Additionally, it is important to know that the Ganga Vilas cruise owner is Raj Singh, as it is operated by a Kolkata-based company named Antara Luxury River Cruises and it is owned by Raj Singh. The reason for the such initiative is the showcasing the Indian rivers as well as the civilizations here. The cruise which is set to start its journey from Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh on Jan 13th will reach Dibrugarh in Assam on 1st March.
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