The Ganga Water rally, organised by the state Tourism Department, concluded with much fanfare at Rajghat in Varanasi on Monday.

The three-day event, which makes a comeback in the state after 7 years, was flagged off from Allahabad on Saturday and passed through Mirzapur and ended in Varanasi.

Tourism Minister Vinod Singh has announced that the rally will now be an annual affair, which would be organised in collaboration with the Indian Kayak and Canoeing Association.    

Regional Tourism Officer Dinesh Kumar said the rally had 75 participants from New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, and Madhya Pradesh.

“The participants were divided into 7 teams and 49 individual participants. We had collaborated with the Indian Kayak and Canoeing Association (IKCA), who had decided the route and also invited the participants,” said Kumar.

The rally started off from the Saraswati Ghat at Allahabad on Saturday. The participants reached Chunar on early Sunday morning, where they had a night halt and cultural programmes were organised by the Tourism department.

On Monday, they started a marathon race from Chunar to Varanasi and reached the holy city by evening where the prizes were given away by Inspector General of Varanasi Range, Gurdarshan Singh.

The prizes were given in four categories, with cash prizes being given away to the winners. Uttar Pradesh was conferred with the gold medal. Secretary Tourism Avanish Awasthi said: “This is a major adventure tourist pulling event and till 2002 we managed to get participants from countries like France and Britain too.”

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