Bandel (India)

Bandel is a Hooghly River (Ganges River) cruise port and town in India's West Bengal state, with a population of around 10,000. The town was founded during Portuguese India (colonial period 1505-1961). Today it is part of the Kolkata metro region and a large railway junction (train station) located approx 40 km (25 mi) from Howrah.

Current-day town's economy is based on Thermal Power Station (opened in 1965, with capacity around 530 MW), bakery industries, trade (Bandel Bazar - one of the district's biggest markets serving agricultural import and export / especially mango, watermelon, rice), banking, railway engineering and manufacturing, paper manufacturing, education (schools and colleges). The nearest airport is in Kolkata (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose).

As a cruise port, Bandel was included in the 2019 schedule of the riverboat Ganges Voyager II (2014-built). The next table shows the ship's 7-day itinerary (themed "India's Golden Triangle and the Sacred Ganges") with prices from ~USD 6900 pp.