West Bengal eyeing Joint Venture to Develop River Tourism

Buoyed by the success of the Ganga river cruise, the first in India along the lines of international standard cruises on the Nile in Egypt and the Irrawady in Burma, the West Bengal Government is inviting joint venture partners to set up a company to give river tourism a fillip.

"We want to put up a Rs 130-200 crore project to develop river tourism in joint venture with a private company," Mr T. V. N. Rao, Managing Director, West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Ltd, told Business Line. Tenders for this will be floated soon. The Government has also chalked out a plan to invest Rs 50 crore in building infrastructure such as jetties, heritage ghats and accommodation along the navigable stretch of the Ganga in the State, he added.

The immediate impetus for the new strategy is the runaway success of the 15-day, 1200 km voyage from the Sunderbans to Varanasi past the Farakka barrage, launched by Pandaw Cruises India in late September. The cruise operator is the Indian arm of an international cruise company that already operates in Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia. In a season that extends from September to March, it has four fully sold out voyages in India already under its belt, and is overbooked for every Sunderbans-Varanasi cruise, tagged at $5000, scheduled till March 2011.

Mr Raj Singh, Director, Pandaw, said the tourism potential is huge and that the attractions on this trip are virtually unparalleled. "It is a phenomenal trip. The diversity is mind-boggling. Here you have heritage (the route traverses former British, French, Dutch and Portuguese colonies), monuments, culture, natural beauty and wildlife all on the same trip," he said. The success of this venture has spawned plans to launch a second vessel on the stretch next year, he adds, indicating that there may be much merit in going full steam ahead.

SOURCE:
The Hindu Business Line
Date - 5 December 2009
Edition - New Delhi