KoPT cruise to tour city's landmarks

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) will start a heritage tour down the Hooghly from April 28.

The cruise tour - 'A Voyage through Tide and Time' - will be "solely managed" by the port, KoPT chairman Vinit Kumar told PTI.

"The KoPT plans to run the service on weekends but it requires a group of at least 20 heads to conduct a tour. The tourism department will help us in promoting and marketing the heritage trip without any exclusive tie-ups," Kumar told PTI.

The tour will begin from the Maritime Heritage Centre at Old Fairlie Warehouse, where visitors would get a chance to learn about the country's maritime history.

The centre houses maritime documents that date back to the British era.

From the heritage centre, the tourists would then be taken to the historic Man-of-War Jetty at Prinsep Ghat to board a cruise vessel.

The vessel would pass along the historic ghats, travel upstream to the Koilaghat jetties - an erstwhile berth for foreign ships - touch the Howrah bridge, the Kidderpore Dock lockgates, the BNR House - where Nawab Wajid Ali Shah once resided - and the Suriname Memorial, before ending the journey at the Indenture Memorial and Old Clock Tower site.

The Suriname memorial was built in recognition and remembrance of labourers who set off from Calcutta to work in distant colonies.

"The tourists may even get to see ships moving into the port through the lock gates, if the timings match," Kumar said, adding that there would be guides to explain the importance of the landmarks.

The tentative three-hour tour will cost an Indian Rs 1399 while a foreigner will have to shell out Rs 2499.