Guwahati: The `Assam Cruises` on river
Brahmaputra has won the Tour of the Year Destination
Development Awards in Japan.
The Cruise operated by private sector Assam Bengal
Navigation (ABN) won the coveted prize for promoting
Brahmaputra river cruises on luxurious boats M V Charaidew and
M V Sukapha for the Japanese market, ABN managing director
Ashish Phookan said here today.
The award was given by Japan Association of Travel Agents
recently at the JATA World Congress in Tokyo, he said.
The ABN`s first river cruise was on Brahmaputra in 2003
and subsequent cruises were on Hoogly river in West Bengal
began from 2005.
The luxury river boats were named after the rulers of the
600-year-old Ahom dynasty in the state and the first liner
`Charaidew` was commissioned with 12 air-conditioned en-suite
cabins followed by the near identical `Sukapha` in 2006,
Phookan said.
The cruises are operated from October to April in Assam
and almost throughout the year in Bengal. Wildlife and
wilderness are the main features of the Assam Cruise
showcasing a 20 km to 30 km length of Brahmaputra, an empty
world of sand pits and water with marvellous wildlife and
occasional Gangetic dolphins, he said.
The cruises in Assam also give access to a number of
National Parks, including the rhino homeland Kaziranga and
Manas, a Project Tiger reserve along the Indo-Bhutan border,
Phookan said.
The `Bengal Cruises` go north from Kolkata on Hoogly
river and can be linked with cruises on Ganga proper from
Bangladesh border upto Patna, he said.
The ABN also has a comfortably furnished jungle lodge
`The Bansbari Lodge` near Manas National Park and `Diphlu
River Lodge` overlooking Kaziranga National Park.
ABN and its sister concern Jungle Travels India, were
jointly awarded the National Tourism Award in 2006 for their
"inovative tourism product of pioneering long distance river
cruising in India", he added.
Bureau Report
