PM to flag off world’s longest river voyage from Varanasi on Jan 13.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the world’s longest river voyage — ‘Ganga Vilas Epic’ cruise from Varanasi to Dibrugarh on January 13.
• The longest river cruise in the world will commence its first journey on January 13, 2023 from PM’s parliamentary constituency.
• According reports, Ganga Vilas Cruise will travel from Kashi to Dibrugarh. It will reach Dibrugarh, Assam via Bangladesh, Patna and Kolkata from Varanasi.
• The river cruise will cover a total of 3200 kilometres through the river route and will reach Dibrugarh on March 1, after a 48-day journey.
• Around 32 Swiss nationals will be onboarding the cruise.

What are the major National waterways in India?

• The Inland Waterways Authority of India Act, 1985 empowers the Government to declare waterways with potential for development of shipping and navigation as National Waterways and develop such waterways for efficient shipping and navigation. 5 National waterways declared under it are as follows.

National Waterway-1

• Allahabad-Haldia
• Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River system
• 1620 km

National Waterway-2

• Dhubri-Sadiya
• River Brahmaputra
• 891 km

National Waterway-3

• Kottapuram-Kollam
• West Coast canal along with Udyogmandal and Champakara Canals.
• 205 km

National Waterway-4

• Kakinada-Puducherry
• Rivers Godavari and Krishna
• 1078 km
• National Waterway-5
• East Coast canal integrated with Brahmani and Mahanadi delta rivers.
• 588 km
• Besides these five waterways, National Waterway Act, 2016 declared 106 additional national waterways in India.

Inland Waterways Authority of India:

• It came into existence on 27th October 1986 for development and regulation of inland waterways for shipping and navigation.
• It primarily undertakes projects for development and maintenance of IWT infrastructure on national waterways through grants received from the Ministry of Shipping.
• It is headquartered at Noida with regional offices at Patna (Bihar), Kolkata (West Bengal), Guwahati (Assam) and Kochi (Kerala) and sub-offices at other places throughout India.