Guwahati, Nov 11: MV Kindat Pandaw, the ship which is carrying the second International voyage after the successes of Ganga Vilas, anchored at Dhubri on Friday after completing its journey via Indo Bangladesh Protocol Route (IBPR).

The ship embarks on a pristine Brahmaputra odyssey from hereon where the rich cultural and social heritage of Assam will be displayed to 31 tourists from Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the USA and the UK. The 21-day international river cruise sojourn is likely to culminate at Pandu in Guwahati.

Reacting to this development, the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal, said, “This is a watershed moment in the resurgence of the inland waterways in Assam. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, our ministry has been working tirelessly to explore the economic potential of Brahmaputra and that too, a viable one.”

“With the successive arrival of international cruise ships, we are slowly but steadily building a strong ecosystem for the river cruise tourism industry to thrive and unlock economic growth in the region. The interests from the international tourists have been encouraging as they will be amazed by the fresh natural beauty that Assam has. Tourists have an opportunity to soak in an immersive experience through this voyage and explore the art, culture, history, and spirituality of India and Bangladesh along the entire route. With these successful voyages, it gives us a lot of resolve to work further to unlock the huge economic potential that Brahmaputra possesses by optimising our rich riverine economy,” he said.

The journey began from Kolkata on 24 October, 2023 and reached Dhaka in Bangladesh on 3rd November, 2023. At the Zero Point near Dhubri, after crossing the international border from Bangladesh, the ship has already covered a distance of 1310 kms in 18 days. The journey is likely to be completed when MV Kindat Pandaw docks at Pandu Port by 12 or 13 November, 2023.

It is to be noted that the maiden international as well as world’s longest river cruise started earlier this year when PM Narendra Modi flagged off ‘Ganga Vilas’ from Varanasi in UP. After traversing through Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal as well as Bangladesh, it arrived at Dhubri in Assam on its 39th day of the voyage. Dubbed as the longest river cruise in the world, the Varanasi to Bogibeel voyage by the Ganga Vilas completed the journey on February 28, 2023, when it anchored at Bogibeel in Dibrugarh drawing a close to its 51 day cruise.

Beyond the international river cruises, there have been many cruises which has been operating in Assam. MV Charaideo, MV Sukapha and MV Mahabahu are regularly ferrying many international tourists from Guwahati to Silghat regularly, ensuring a bustling river cruise sector in Assam.

North East has a huge potential for freight carriage through National Waterways (NW). These National Waterways provide hinterland connectivity to states of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh also and connect these States with mainland India and sea ports of Kolkata and Haldia through Indo-Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) route. Several projects for developing inland water transport infrastructure namely fairway, terminals and navigation aids have been completed by IWAI in the North East region and some of them like dredging, Ship repair facility etc. are under progress.

As per an IWAI internal study conducted in the year 2017, 49 MMTPA of cargo moves in and out of the North East Region and approximately 30 MMTPA of cargo moves within North East region.

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