A three-storey ship, carrying 89 passengers, reached Kolkata’s Indenture Memorial Jetty at the Kidderpore dock on Friday afternoon, two days after the vessel sailed off from Dhaka’s Hasnabad carnival jetty on the Buriganga.
“Traversing through the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans was a mesmerising experience,” said Ala Amin Hossain Sojol, a traveller from Dhaka. After entering the Indian section of the Sundarbans at Hemnagar, MV Rajarhat-C, which has a capacity for carrying 300 passengers, took river and coastal routes of the Sundarbans via Namkhana and Diamond Harbour.
An inter-ministerial meeting was held at the Bangladesh shipping ministry on September 13, chaired by Bangladesh shipping secretary Mostafa Kamal, before the launch of the Dhaka-Kolkata ship. For safety and security of passengers, especially at night, it was decided that strict watch would be maintained on both sides from local coastal police stations. State minister for shipping, Bangladesh, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury had assured the visa process, particularly for tourists taking the water transport, would be eased, going by the protocol for inland water transit and trade between Bangladesh and India. The lowest single-sleeper one-way travel on MV Rajarhat-C costs Rs 5,000 and a premium VIP cabin for two Rs 38,000. The ship will leave Kolkata for the return journey on Wednesday. “We received over 2,000 queries for the next Kolkata trip, which is slated for December 14. But we are awaiting visa clearances,” said Indrajit Pal, steamer agent from the Indian side.
