Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah launched the country’s first Made in India luxury cruise vessel ‘Akshar’ on the Sabarmati riverfront through video conferencing today.

The minister said ‘Akshar River Cruise’ was the first passenger catamaran built in the country at a cost of Rs 15 crore with twin engines and can safely travel for one and a half hours. The 30-metre cruise vessel which has a capacity of 165 passengers and a restaurant would emerge as a centre of attraction for all the citizens of Ahmedabad and the country visiting the city, Shah said.

“As the then Gujarat chief minister, Prime Minister Modi for the first time imagined a riverfront and planned for it, and it was constructed during his duration (as CM). The riverfront became known not just in Ahmedabad but also across the country and abroad and became a centre of tourism,” Shah explained.

The minister said that only has the water level gone up in the Sabarmati due to the riverfront, but it has also emerged as a centre of various social and cultural activities for everyone including senior citizens, children and youth.

Shah said that during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi had always given priority to tourism in the state. As a result of these initiatives Gujarat and its two major tourist centres have emerged prominently on the country’s tourism map.

He said that by investing crores of rupees, an ecosystem was developed for lakhs of tourists coming to Gujarat, good roads were constructed to connect all pilgrimages and borders, and roads connecting airports to tourist places were also built to provide the facilities to tourists.

Union Home Minister said that a light and sound show has started at Ambaji, flag is hoisted at Pavagadh temple after 500 years, Madhavpur fair has become a national fair, a tent city has been built in Kutch for the tourists from all over the world to stay in White Rann. Along with this, with the making of Kankaria pond and now, this riverfront in Ahmedabad, a huge tourism ecosystem has been created, he added.

Shah said that under the Sarhad Darshan Programme (Border visit programme), arrangements have also been made to give the youth of Gujarat an experience of Nadabet where the security forces perform their duties in difficult circumstances. He said that Shri Narendra Modi has taken forward the development of tourism, due to which the tourist footfall in Gujarat from within the country and around the world has increased many fold. Shah added that the world’s largest cricket stadium is in Ahmedabad, where cricket matches are held regularly and tourism has also increased. Apart from this, now a very big sports city is also taking shape in the state.

Amit Shah said that the efforts made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last 9 years to make India number one in every field of the world are now showing results. These include schemes like Garib Kalyan, Bharat Gaurav, Bharat Utkarsh and infrastructure development, he added.