Come January 2022, Odisha will have luxury cruise facility for the tourists to enjoy natures’ bounty of the Bhitarkanika National Park and nearby areas.

At least four luxury catamaran cruise vessels will be ready for operation for a glorious experience of cruise tourism in the Bhitarkanika.  Principal Secretary Tourism and Sports Vishal Dev reviewed the cruise project here on July 9 with the senior officials of the Department of Tourism.Recently, the Department of Tourism (DoT) had floated a Request For Proposal (RFP) to select an operator for cruise project. Among the three bids received, one of the India’s leading luxury river cruise operators, Heritage River Journeys Group, has been selected.

 A Letter of Award (LoA) has been issued to the bidder, which will take charge of four catamarans of the Department of Forest, Environment and Climate Change (DoFECC). The DoFECC has procured these four catamarans under ICZMP for promoting water based recreation in selected water bodies of the State. Further these catamarans were operated in Bhitarkanika National Park for few years by the DoFECC. Now the preferred bidder will take over these catamarans and refurbish the same as house boats, which will be operationalized from January 2022, official sources said.

Overnight stay packages will be offered to the guests covering different parts of Bhitarkanika National Park and nearby areas. After introduction of Cruise Tourism in Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, it will be operationalised in Chilka and Mahanadi River, said sources in  Department of Tourism.