Maiden luxury cruising to the Sunderbans

Kolkata, Jan 5(UNI) As the city-based Vivada Cruises is all set to launch its day-and-night luxury river cruiser services with top star facilities to the Sunderbans from next week, the journey through the world' largest mangrove and the habitat of famous Royal Bengal tigers will never be the same again.

The 400 km-long super luxurious cruising for two days and three nights through the innumerable creeks and rivers through the Sunderbans delta in South Bengal would come as a "complete package" that combines eco-tourism, adventure sports,leisure and nature trek at a cost of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per passenger, said Vivida Inland Waterways Chairman M V Nath.

Speaking to newsmen here today more about his dream project, with an estimated expenditure of around Rs 40 crores, Mr Nath said VIWL presently had a large fleet of barges and vessels and was engaged in inland waterways business for nearly four decades.

Claiming that this would be the first such day-and-night river cruising initiative perhaps in the whole of India in the wake of huge demand from international tourists,Mr Nath said Vivada,in collaboration with the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation, had worked out the tour package and also tied-up with Delhi-based Strategic Research and Marketing(SRM)for marketing the project globally.

Since the Sunderbans drew thousands of tourists each year from all across the globe, the launch of the eco-friendly cruiser more and more foreign tourists were expected to visit one of the world's most unique eco-systems into the land of the famed Royal Bengal Tigers and the world's largest estuarine delta and mangrove forests, Mr Nath said adding a canopy walk through the dense forests, seeing an island being formed,a trip to a fisherman's cove, ride through the mangroves were parts of the tour package.

The three-deck cruiser,"Paramahamsa" with 32-rooms(AC), will be complete with the latest amenities that make cruising all the more thrilling. The cruiser would have a 40-member onboard staff to attend to the tourists.

UNI