<p>The government is working towards making India a global cruise hub with state-of-art infrastructure for both ocean and river cruise, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said on Saturday.</p>.<p>Sonowal said that several attractions of India along its 7,500 km long coastline and vast river systems are yet to be unveiled to the world.</p>.<p>According to him, the global players have evinced a keen interest in promoting cruise tourism in India, and with the development of the right infrastructure and adoption of modern technology, India will certainly become one of the top tourism destinations in the world.</p>.<p>Inaugurating the first Incredible India International Cruise Conference 2022 in Mumbai, he stated that the Government has set up a Task Force headed by the Secretary, Tourism and Secretary, Shipping for development of cruise tourism.</p>.<p>The Minister announced the setting up of a high level Advisory Committee, comprising national and international experts, to help the Task Force in creating an enabling ecosystem for development of cruise tourism in the country.</p>.<p>India aims to increase cruise passenger traffic from 0.4 million at present to four million. Economic potential of Cruise tourism is expected to go up from $110 million to $5.5 billion in the years to come.</p>.<p>In order to boost the cruise tourism industry in the country, the Government of India has taken several initiatives including infrastructure upgradation, rationalisation of port fees, removing ousting charges, granting priority berthing to cruise ships, providing e-visa facilities etc.</p>.<p>Upgradation and modernisation are being carried out at seven major ports in the country including the flagship New International Cruise terminal coming up in Mumbai with a total cost about Rs 495 crores.</p>.<p>The iconic sea cruise terminal coming up at BPX-Indira Dock, is expected to be commissioned by July 2024. The terminal will have a capacity of handling 200 ships and 1 million passengers per annum.</p>.<p>Similar infrastructure upgradation is taking place in Goa, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Kolkata.</p>
<p>The government is working towards making India a global cruise hub with state-of-art infrastructure for both ocean and river cruise, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal said on Saturday.</p>.<p>Sonowal said that several attractions of India along its 7,500 km long coastline and vast river systems are yet to be unveiled to the world.</p>.<p>According to him, the global players have evinced a keen interest in promoting cruise tourism in India, and with the development of the right infrastructure and adoption of modern technology, India will certainly become one of the top tourism destinations in the world.</p>.<p>Inaugurating the first Incredible India International Cruise Conference 2022 in Mumbai, he stated that the Government has set up a Task Force headed by the Secretary, Tourism and Secretary, Shipping for development of cruise tourism.</p>.<p>The Minister announced the setting up of a high level Advisory Committee, comprising national and international experts, to help the Task Force in creating an enabling ecosystem for development of cruise tourism in the country.</p>.<p>India aims to increase cruise passenger traffic from 0.4 million at present to four million. Economic potential of Cruise tourism is expected to go up from $110 million to $5.5 billion in the years to come.</p>.<p>In order to boost the cruise tourism industry in the country, the Government of India has taken several initiatives including infrastructure upgradation, rationalisation of port fees, removing ousting charges, granting priority berthing to cruise ships, providing e-visa facilities etc.</p>.<p>Upgradation and modernisation are being carried out at seven major ports in the country including the flagship New International Cruise terminal coming up in Mumbai with a total cost about Rs 495 crores.</p>.<p>The iconic sea cruise terminal coming up at BPX-Indira Dock, is expected to be commissioned by July 2024. The terminal will have a capacity of handling 200 ships and 1 million passengers per annum.</p>.<p>Similar infrastructure upgradation is taking place in Goa, New Mangalore, Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, and Kolkata.</p>