Tourist boats are set to turn the river Hooghly into a tourist attraction as much as a party venue. | |
| For a city that owes its existence to the river, modern-day Kolkata seems to have turned its back on the Hooghly. The river's importance as a trade corridor disappeared long ago. |
| |
| Commuters do cross it, but rarely travel by it. Stranger still, the riverfront is not a leisure destination for sightseers, except for a 3-km stretch from Princep Ghat to Millennium Park which has been beautified for the purpose. |
| |
| Clearly, the West Bengal Surface Transport Corp and the West Bengal Tourism Development Corp have not been up to the task. But now, private tourist boat operators are getting into the act, trying to reclaim the river for leisure activity, helped along by the state government and Kolkata Port Trust (KPT). |
| |
| The first in was Vivada Inland Waterways, which has been offering day-cruises (one lasting 30 minutes and the other, four hours) on its MV Ahalya, leased from the WBSTC, for the past year or so. The boat is also let out for corporate events, private parties, receptions and the like. Vivada also operates two water-taxis. |
| |
| This festive season, Vivada plans to launch its own vessel, MV Paramhansa, a 60-metre luxury liner for river cruises to the Sunderbans. The service, priced at some Rs 15,000 per person per trip, is aimed at foreigners, says MV Nath, chairman, and will have an open-air gymnasium, massage roon, telescope and night-vision binoculars. |
| |
| Around the same time, Eastern Navigation will also launch its MV Pari. But its directors, Yeshwant and Basant Singhee, have a different business model in mind. |
| |
| Pari will only be rented out to individuals, groups or companies for events, get-togethers, parties and the like. The Singhees, who've been in the cargo business, have been renting out old barges in their possession for five years now. "It wasn't a commercial operation, but was extremely successful," says Yeshwant Singhee. |
| |
| With its air-conditioned under-deck, well-appointed wooden interiors and glass windows overlooking the river, wireless internet connectivity, strobe-lit dance floor and rooftop water sprinklers, Pari will be marketed as a super-luxury venue for parties, says Singhee. |
| |
| All this would, of course, have come to naught without the support of the KPT, which has recently allowed the Singhees' Reach Asia, their hospitality outfit, the use of its Outram Ghat Jetty. |
| |
| The KPT has also leased 200 metres on the riverfront which Nath plans to develop into a water-side marina with speed boats, sail boats, kayaks, a floating restaurant with dinghies as tables and so on. |
| |
| Recently, KPT also floated a tender inviting expressions of interest from cruise operators in the Kolkata-Sagar-Puri-Andaman circuit. To this end, KTP is upgrading the Kidderpore passenger terminal and sprucing other things up. Up-river tourism to historical sites like Gaur, Pandua and Murshidabad offers plenty of opportunity too. |
| |
| While all this is commendable, beautifying the Hooghly is still a work-in-progress that's progressing far too slowly. The left bank is nice, but what about the other? |
| |
|
| |
