India’s First IWDC commits Rs 45,000 crores to River Cruise Tourism

Padmesh Prabhune

The maiden edition of Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) in Kolkata culminated on Monday, January 8 with many firsts in an effort to ramp up capacity and augment viability of inland waterways of the country. Organised by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the one-day meet was held on board the vessel MV Ganges Queen at the Kolkata Dock Complex.

The meet, chaired by the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, was attended by Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, and Tourism, Shri Shripad Naik and Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shri Shantanu Thakur, along with key stakeholders, including ministerial representations from state senior government officials as well as prominent stakeholders including policy makers and industry leaders.

Shri Sonowal also launched ‘Harit Nauka’ guidelines and ‘River Cruise Tourism Roadmap, 2047’ at the inaugural session of IWDC in Kolkata.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sonowal said, “The immense potential of the blue economy must be realised as we work towards becoming a leader in the Blue Economy of the world, a vision of Modiji himself. The Inland Waterways Development Council (IWDC) was conceived with an objective to rejuvenate our rich, complex and dynamic waterways.”

The meet, with an objective to enable inland waterways as conduits of economic growth and commerce in the country, committed an investment Rs 45,000 crore for development of river cruise tourism in the country. Of this ambitious sum, an estimated Rs 35,000 crore has been earmarked for cruise vessels and another Rs 10,000 crore for development of cruise terminal infrastructure at the end of Amrit Kaal, i.e. by 2047.

At the IWDC, a roadmap was chalked to enable capacity of an additional 26 waterways, fit for River Cruise tourism from the current operational strength of 8 waterways. The number of cruise circuits with night stays to be increased from 17 to 80 during the same time.

In an effort to boost infrastructure in the inland waterways, over 185 river cruise terminals are planned from the present strength of 15 terminals. Likewise building on the capacity of enhanced circuits, the cruise tourism traffic with night stays are likely to be moved up from 5,000 to 1.20 lakh by 2047, while the local cruise tourism traffic on National Waterways without night stay is to be increased from 2 lakh to 15 lakh by 2047.

Marex Media