River sutra

From Kipling’s Kim to Gandhi’s travels and the Palace on Wheels, the Railways has been essential to how travel is imagined and depicted across the Indian Subcontinent. At approximately Rs 25,000 per day per person, MV Ganga Vilas is more in line with the latter than the former. Both the PM and Shipping & Ports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal have cited the jobs that riverine tourism could bring to states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. But employment generation must go hand-in-hand with ecological repair. Two of the greatest threats to India’s rivers — silting and pollution — must be addressed for the government to realise its goal to increase cruise passenger traffic from 4 lakh people to nearly 10 times that figure. But this growth, to be sustainable, must involve local communities. While there is potential for larger, luxury liners, riverine tourism could also expand and cater to travellers from different economic strata. Also, smaller vessels may pose less of an ecological challenge.

While the Centre’s push in the sector, with the PM as the face, is welcome, states and the private sector too must be brought on board. There is, for example, much that east Indian states can learn from how Kerala monetises and maintains its backwaters. The hospitality sector is labour-intensive and can provide some of the formal jobs that a transitioning Indian economy so desperately needs. And given the growing global market for ecologically-conscious travel, India can — if it is meticulous and enterprising in its planning — protect its rivers and create jobs at the same time.