As per the latest development, the world’s longest luxury river cruise is all set to start its journey in January 2023, which will be a distance of around 4000 km. This was recently announced by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal.

Known as Ganga Vilas Cruise, this cruise will connect Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to Dibrugarh in Assam, and travel through Kolkata and Dhaka.

The cruise route:


If reports are to go by, the ship will pass through national parks and sanctuaries, including the Kaziranga National Park and Sundarbans Delta. Also, the other highlights of this tour will be the Ganga Aarti, checking out the natural wonders of the world’s largest mangrove forest, visiting Mayong, which is known as the cradle of ‘black magic’ in India, among other things.

Revealing more about this trip, the Minister added that the first journey will commence on January 10 from Varanasi, whereas the cruise will reach Bogibeel in Dibrugarh district of Assam on March 1.

The cruise will further pass Varanasi and reach Patna on the 8th day passing through Buxar, Ramnagar, and Ghazipur, and will be covering almost 1100 km in Bangladesh before entering India.

On connecting India and Bangladesh…


This endeavour was possible under the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route, which has already opened trade and transit channels connecting both the countries on Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers.

The Minister also added that the Ganga Vilas cruise will be undergoing the longest river journey of 50 days, covering 27 river systems, and more than 50 tourist sites, including World Heritage Sites. 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, the Minister stated.