Large motor boats are back on the Ganga at Varanasi. After a gap of 62 days, the police allowed them to start carrying passengers again from Friday, 9 October, once the river had dropped and conditions on the water improved. Hand-rowed boats, however, remain barred for now.
Dr Atul Anjan Tripathi, Assistant Commissioner of Police for the Dashashwamedh circle, met the boatmen on Friday, explained the guidelines and then gave the order to resume. Motor boats can run only between 6 AM and 5 PM. Any boat that goes out outside those hours, or that breaks the safety rules, will face action, he told the boatmen.
The conditions are strict. Every motor boat must carry at least two boatmen who can swim. Every passenger, whether a tourist or a pilgrim, must wear a life jacket, and nobody will be allowed on board without one. Each boat is also limited to half of its rated seating capacity, a cut meant to keep the vessel from being overloaded and to leave room to move in an emergency.
Boats must also carry a rope, a life buoy and other rescue equipment. Boatmen have been told to put the safety of passengers first and to follow every norm set by the administration. The administration has said that if the Ganga rises again or the weather turns bad, it will review the position and can stop the service once more.
Sixty-two days before 9 October is 8 August, so the break covered the whole of the monsoon flood season, when the Ganga was high and the weather was poor. The boats were stopped because of the rising river and bad weather, according to the administration. Boatmen earn their living from tourists and pilgrims, and the festival season that begins this week is normally a busy one for the ghats.
A boat ride is how many visitors see the ghats of Kashi, which number 84 along the river. The police have said the motor boats can show passengers those ghats from the water. Hand-rowed boats are still under the ban for safety reasons, and no date has been given for lifting it.
The riverbank itself is still recovering. As the water has fallen, silt has been left on the steps and approach lanes of several ghats, and the municipal corporation has begun clearing it, as we report in our story on the silt cleaning drive from Assi to Rajghat. At some ghats, boatmen have built a path of planks and jetties so that passengers can reach the boats without wading through mud.
Visitors who plan a ride this week should be ready for a few changes. Expect to be handed a life jacket before boarding and to be asked to wear it for the whole trip. The half-capacity rule means fewer seats per boat, so a wait at the ghat is possible. Motor boats are not allowed to run after 5 PM, so a ride timed for sunset will have to start early.
The timing matters for the bigger events. The city is preparing for the Navratri and Durga Puja crowds from 11 October, and for the Indian Air Force display at Namo Ghat later this month, which has already led to a ban on the sale of meat and fish around the venue, as set out in our report on the air show preparations at Namo Ghat. Whether boats will be restricted during the air show has not been announced, and the police have not said how the river will be managed on those days.
How long the motor boats keep running will depend on the river's level and the weather. The administration has made clear that it will watch the river and the weather and can pull the permission back. The boatmen have been told that the safety rules are a condition of working on the river.
