The West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation(WBTDC) along with the state tourism department is undertaking a mega river tourism project with the river 'Ganga' as the central theme.
The 'Ganga river cruise circuit project' involves beautifying and developing around 12 heritage ghats along the river Ganga--Belur, Dakhineswar, Barrackpore, Serampore, Chandannagar, Chinsura, Nabadwip, Mayapur, Plassey, Baharampur, Murshidabad and Azimganj-Baranagar-- at an approximate investment of Rs 20 crore sanctioned by central government under the Central Financial Assistance Scheme, 2008-09.
The other part of the project will have cruises plying from Farakka to the Bay of Bengal, to be executed under the Public Private Partnership(PPP) model at an investment of Rs 125 crore, with a central government assistance of Rs 33 crore.
An expression of interest(EOI) for the purpose has already been floated. Around three parties have shown interest, Vivada Inland Waterways being one of the three.
Speaking on the 'foundation stone laying ceremony' of the Rs 20 crore Ganga river cruise circuit, Manabendra Mukherjee, minister of toursim and small and medium enterprises and textiles, government of West Bengal, said, "We will be developing the river Ganga, which has a historical significance and has a great potential.This is one of the largests projects taken up by our department, wherein 12 ghats around this sacred river will be developed and beautified by providing food kiosks, drinking water fountain, approach road and fencing, amongst other things."
This apart, the tourism department would also develop areas around the historical Plassey at an investment of Rs 2.38 crore sanctioned by the central government, a Rs 5 crore project to develop Sajnekhali into a better tourism destination at Sunderbans and a Rs 6.2 crore project to develop areas around Bakkhali and Gangasagar, informed TVN Rao, managing director of WBTDC.
Proposals for further development of Barrackpore and Murshidabad as tourism destinations, were still pending with the government of India, admitted Rao.
Speaking on the occasion, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, governor of West Bengal highlighted that 'environment friendly projects' were very significant and the state tourism department should ensure that all these projects were least polluting. "The vessels which will be plying on the river should be non-diesel and non-polluting and it should involve least noise pollution factors.Music, if at all in the vessels, should not disturb the natural silence of the journey.This project should be clean and efficient and was meant for environment and heritage conscious tourists", said Gandhi.
