Vivada to offer sailboats on Hooghly

In a bid to boost tourism in the state of West Bengal, Vivada Inland Waterways, the river transport company primarily engaged in carrying petroleum products, is looking at introducing sailboats on the river Hooghly within next year.

R Sushila, executive director of Vivada Inland Waterways, said, "We are planning to introduce sailboats on the river Hoogly, to boost adventure tourism in the state of West Bengal, which has a vast potential."

To develop adventure tourism in the state, the company was looking at introducing one sailboat to begin with.

It aimed to increase the number of boats later.

The sailboat could come from either Dubai or Singapore and talks were on.

The cost of such a boat was approximately Rs 1 crore, but prices were always fluctuating, added Sushila.

The boat would ply on the river Hooghly to the mouth of Bay of Bengal.

This apart, Heritage Cruise, another vessel which only used to ply to the Sunderbans, would now cover more places like Belur, Mayapur, Chandannagar, Nawadweep, Palasi, Murshidabad and Kalna. This service would be started from November of this year.

In addition to this, the river transport company recently signed a joint venture with Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) for construction of two inland barrages of 1,500 dead weight ton (DWT) each between Kolkata and Dubri (Assam).