Inaugurating the world’s longest river cruise service on the river Ganga, Prime Minister Modi started his speech by chanting Har Har Mahadev and said that “this cruise service will give new strength to the Ganga campaign.” Mother Ganga, riding on the head of Mahadev, is not only the giver of salvation having religious and spiritual importance, but also the source of livelihood of lakhs of Indians. In the words of Prime Minister Modi himself, “Whatever may have been the conditions of India, Maa Ganga has always nurtured crores of Indians.”
Since coming to power, Prime Minister Modi has been continuously striving for the revival of Ganga. The ‘Namami Gange’ campaign launched by the Modi government has been accepted by the United Nations as one of the top 10 campaigns in the world. After the ‘Namami Gange’ initiative, the number of water-creatures and fishes in the Ganga is increasing, due to which, along with cleaning the ecosystem of the Ganga, other livelihood opportunities are also increasing. During the first National Ganga Council meeting in Kanpur in 2019, the Prime Minister urged to go beyond Namami Gange and add Artha Ganga model ie “using economics to connect people to the river”.
In this sense Ganga Model has an important work area – “Model Boat Tourism” under which Prime Minister Narendra Modi while flagging off Ganga Vilas Cruise today said that “Vilas Cruise will start a new era of tourism in India. Wherever the cruise passes through, it will create a new line of development. This cruise is specially designed keeping in mind the religious tourism of the Ganga belt which will pass through Ganga, Bhagirathi, Yamuna, Vidyavati and Brahmaputra. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam will come in the route of the cruise. Ganga Vilas will complete the journey from Kashi to Bogibeel, then return from Kolkata to Varanasi.
Cruise passengers will get more facilities than five star hotels. It is being told that 12 lakh 60 thousand rupees will have to be given per person to travel for 51 days. This amount will increase with the facilities. Rather it also has gym, spa center, lecture house, library. 40 crew staff will be ready to serve the cruise passengers. According to the information so far, the official voyage of Ganga Vilas Cruise may start from September, but the booking of the cruise has been completed for the next two years. This clearly shows that domestic and foreign tourists are very excited about the operation of cruise in Ganga.
Ganga is not just a river for us Indians, but our faith is contained in it for hundreds of generations. Ganga is the giver of life as well as the giver of salvation. Namami Gange and Arth Ganga are wonderful confluence of modernity while preserving the great cultural heritage of India. Through the Ganga Vilas Cruise service, tourists will be able to see both the religious importance and economic usefulness of Mother Ganga.
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Tags: Namami Gange Project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
FIRST PUBLISHED : January 13, 2023, 16:29 IST
