Cruise Service To Be Soon Available On River Yamuna In Mathura

Mathura, April 5 (TNA) After Varanasi and Ayodhya, it's now the turn of Mathura to green flag a cruise service on river Yamuna, one of the holiest rivers of India. Officials of the UP Braj Teerth Vikas Parishad are hopeful that the service will soon be available to pilgrims from the Gokul Ghat to Vrindavan's Keshi Ghat, with a stopover at Mathura's Vishram Ghat.

"It would be a picturesque journey linking shrines and holy ghats connected with Sri Krishna's early life in Braj Mandal," said Jagan Nath Poddar, convener of Friends of Vrindavan. The Yamuna cruise would be a kind of fulfilment of a promise by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari who had announced a ferry service from Delhi to Agra to transport tourists.

The UP government supports the project cleared by the Union Environment Ministry and will be run on the PPP model. The cruise will have the capacity to ferry 100 to 150 passengers. Already, Mathura, Vrindavan, and Gokul have hundreds of decorated boats that take pilgrims across the river or for a round.

Locals are worried because the cruise could affect the livelihood of hundreds of boatmen. Some people are also concerned whether the polluted water, mostly from upstream drains that discharge industrial effluents and sewage, would provide a memorable experience. ""Ideally the river should be cleaned and all the drains diverted or tapped. We need to ensure that untreated water is not discharged into the river. At some points, the stink in the river is such a put-off," adds Poddar.

Meanwhile, the local MP Hema Malini, on a hat trick trail, after filing her nomination papers today, said she would do something concrete for the Yamuna, in her third term.