Cruise ship Ganga Vilas enters Bangladesh

Dhaka: World’s longest river cruise Ganga Vilas reached the waters of Bangladesh on Friday, on the 21st day after being flagged off from Varanasi on January 13 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is anchored at  Antihara after the cruise members completed their customs and immigration formalities in the afternoon. After overnight stay at Antihara, the cruise will sail for its next destination on Saturday morning and reach Mongla port in the afternoon.

High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Pranay Verma will welcome the tourists on their arrival at Mongla on Saturday. A number of dignitaries from Bangladesh including the state shipping minister Khalid Mahmud will be present to welcome the river cruise members on arrival at Mongla. Later in the afternoon, the tourists



will go to visit the UNESCO heritage site of the 60-domed mosque at Bagerhat.

The momentous visit of the cruise ship is being hailed as a major step in realising the potential of tourism between the two countries, strengthening people to people ties and opening up new ways of connectivity between India and Bangladesh.

During its two-week-long passage through Bangladesh, the cruise ship will take the visitors to some of the most historic and heritage places of Bangladesh including Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest of the world. Apart from Mongla and parts of the Sundarban, the cruise will cover Barisal, Tangail, Dhaka, Sirajganj and Rangpur before entering Dhubri in Assam on 16th February.