Guwahati: Come December 27 and the banks of Aie river in the Chirang district of Assam will come alive with lights, music and adventure sports, not to forget the glitz and glamour associated with Bollywood, as the Dwijing Festival is all set to return with its third edition.
The 12-day festival was officially announced by Assam tourism minister Chandan Brahma and Assam Tourism Development Council chairman Jayanta Malla Baruah at a press conference in Guwahati on Wednesday. The festival will start on December 27 and continue till January 7 next year.
With the target of promoting river tourism in the rural areas of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and the state, the festival was initiated in the year 2016-17 under the moniker of Aie River Winter Festival. Later in 2017-18, the name was changed to ‘Dwijing’ meaning ‘river bank’ and it became an annual river festival of the region. The association of the Hagrama Bridge, the longest rural river bridge of the state, with the festival further resulted in the increase of visitors to the festival.
The 12- day event will witness audiences from all sections of society and will include the both national and international guests. Speaking on the occasion, Brahma, said. “The festival was started in 2016 with an aim to promote local tourism and culture of BTC. Today, we have reached the third edition of the festival. We plan to make it one of the biggest ever and establish it as an annual calendar event at the national and international level. We are also looking forward to participation of all Northeastern states along with Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal, and international participants from Bhutan, Thailand and Bangladesh.”
The crux of the festival is to provide livelihood opportunities for the local and focus on the business activities for better economic generation through rural tourism. Apart from cultural and ethnic display, the festival will also showcase various adventure activities such as jet-skiing, hot air balloon ride, helicopter ride, jeep safari, elephant safari along with display of ethnic food and culture, ethnic games, among others.
Entertainment being a major part of a festival, Dwijing Festival will also have a plethora of artistes like Kailas Kher, Amit Trivedi, Malaika Arora Khan, Himesh Reshammiya, Neeraj Shridhar, Bhoomi Trivedl, Shweta Pandlt and WWE wrestler The Great Khali, among several others, during the festival.
Brahma also added that through the festival the tourism department looks forward to changing the perspective of the people created due to few untoward incidents that had taken place in the past and transform the region as a tourism hotspot.
