Patna, Dec. 25: Move over floating restaurant, a hotel on Ganga water is set to sweep you off your feet.

The state tourism department has decided to start a floating hotel on the Ganga and an operator from Calcutta has expressed interest in taking charge of the proposed project in Patna. The wait for the “wonder on water” will not be too long as the department has set a deadline of March 2012 for the hotel to become operational.

State tourism minister Sunil Kumar “Pintu” told The Telegraph: “Considering the enormous rise in the number of tourists and the river tourism potential in the state capital, we have decided to start a floating hotel in Patna. A tender in this regard was floated by the department a couple of weeks ago. The firm running the floating hotel (Floatel) in Calcutta has approached us. The firm has, in fact, submitted a formal application to the department for operating the proposed hotel. If it is awarded the contract, officials from the Calcutta firm will conduct a survey on the banks of the Ganga to finalise the place from where the vessel would operate. We intend to start the operations of the floating hotel by March 2012.”

The proposed floating hotel would be a ship/vessel on the Ganga, anchored permanently near the banks.

“The vessel would be anchored 500m to 1km near the river bank and would be connected with a gangway. People would be able to have dinner, attend musical shows and stay overnight in the rooms of the floating hotel. One would also be able to organise parties on the open deck or at the restaurant of the hotel,” said Pintu.

The department is looking at a vessel with at least 30 rooms and the project cost has been estimated to be between Rs 3 crore and Rs 4 crore.

The fare for the different facilities at the floating hotel has not been fixed yet. “As we are still in the process of selecting the firm which would operate the floating hotel, it will be difficult to comment on the charges for the different services. Our aim is to keep it as affordable as possible,” said “Pintu”.

Apart from the floating hotel, motorboats, long route houseboats and big ships are also on the radar of the tourism department. Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC), an undertaking of the state tourism department, has floated tenders for houseboats of different sizes — single bedroom to 10 bedrooms — in different districts along the Ganga in the state. These boats would allow inter-city cruise with leisure facilities. Motorboats with a capacity of 25 and 50 seats are also in the pipeline. Moreover, ships with a capacity to carry up to 100 people are on the anvil.