Varanasi: motor-boat rides on the Ganga resume, daytime only; rowing boats still banned

Update — 16 October 2026: motor boats are back, daytime only

From 9 October the Varanasi administration has allowed large motor boats back on the Ganga, between 6am and 5pm only, with life jackets compulsory and boats limited to half their capacity. Hand-rowed boats are still not allowed. The order does not cover the evening hours, so check with your boat operator or hotel before planning to watch the Ganga Aarti from the water (Loktej, 10 October, citing ACP Dashashwamedh).

Our 25 September update below, which reported general boat rides still suspended, is kept as published.

Update — 25 September 2026: boats allowed for the aarti only; the Assi Ghat aarti is back

The Ganga at Varanasi had fallen to 66.42 metres by 22 September, Hindustan Times reported, uncovering the ghats’ platforms and steps under a thick layer of silt. On Monday 21 September, after about 50 days, the district administration allowed boats to take people out onto the river to watch the evening Ganga Aarti, Dainik Bhaskar reported on 22 September. That is a limited permission: ABP Live reported the same day that general boat operations were still disrupted, with boatmen asking for them to restart and silt clearance under way on the ghats.

The Ganga Aarti at Assi Ghat is being held at its usual place again, ABP Live reported. We have not found a report confirming that the Dashashwamedh aarti is back on its lower platform. If a sunrise boat ride or a cruise is part of your plans, confirm with your operator that it is running on your date. Our 17 September update and the original reports of 5 and 6 September follow unchanged.

Update — 17 September 2026: the river is well down, the boats were not back as of 13 September

The river has kept falling since our last update. On 13 September IANS reported the Ganga at Varanasi at 68.92 metres on the Central Water Commission gauge. That is about 1.34 metres below the 70.26-metre warning mark and still falling by about a centimetre an hour. The same report says boat operations on the river were still suspended, and boatmen quoted in it said they would resume only after the water drops further.

On 14 September Amar Ujala reported the water receding and people cleaning the ghats, with shopkeepers starting to return. Aaj Tak reported on 12 September that the receding water had left mud and silt piled up at the Dashashwamedh ghats; a boatman there said clearing it would take more than a month. We have found no report dated after 13 September saying boats have resumed. We have also found none confirming that the Ganga Aarti is back in its usual position. We are treating both as unconfirmed rather than assuming either way.

What this means now: the flood itself has passed, but the two things most Varanasi visits are built around, the boat ride and the aarti on the lower platform, may still be affected. Confirm both with your hotel or operator close to the date. A PTI-Bhasha report from 6 September also settles the threshold question raised below: it gives 70.262 metres as the warning mark and 71.262 metres as the danger mark. Our report as updated on 6 September follows unchanged.

What happened

The Ganga rose above its warning mark at Varanasi in the first days of September. On 2 September the Central Water Commission recorded 70.29 metres against a warning mark of 70.26 metres, and the district administration suspended all passenger and tourist boat operations. By 3 September the river had reached 70.54 metres at the Rajghat gauge, rising at around two centimetres an hour, against a danger mark of 71.26 metres. For scale, the highest flood level ever recorded here is 73.90 metres.

Most ghats were submerged. Manikarnika, the principal cremation ghat, went completely under water, with families using boats to reach the site and cremations moving to rooftops and nearby lanes. At Dashashwamedh the river covered the lower platforms, and organisers relocated the evening Ganga Aarti to higher ground. Relief operations covered 29 villages and wards, with about 2,900 people moved, 61 relief camps and 198 boats deployed.

Where it stands (updated 6 September)

The river has fallen below its warning mark. Two readings from Sunday 6 September agree and are worth giving separately rather than averaging: 69.82 metres at 8am, reported by Dainik Bhaskar and Patrika citing the Central Water Commission, and 69.76 metres at 2pm, reported by PTI from a CWC bulletin. That is a fall of about six centimetres across six hours, and PTI puts the current rate at one centimetre an hour. For comparison, the peak was 70.54 metres on 3 September.

One caution on the threshold. PTI’s copy describes 70.26 metres as the danger level; the sources used when we first published, and the convention applied at Varanasi, treat 70.26 metres as the warning mark and 71.26 metres as the danger mark. The number the river has dropped below is not in dispute, only the label attached to it.

Boats have NOT resumed. A News18 Hindi ground report from Varanasi on 6 September states that cruise and boat operations on the river remain completely halted, and Dainik Bhaskar’s report the same morning says the same. Assi Ghat was still fully submerged. The Ganga Aarti is still being performed from the topmost platform of the ghat rather than its usual position, and no source we opened reports it returning to the lower platform at Dashashwamedh.

A falling river is not the same as a reopened one. With the water dropping, the ghats are being left covered in silt, water hyacinth and refuse, which is now its own obstacle to reopening, and rain was forecast for the following days.

What travellers need to know

Two things almost every Varanasi itinerary is built on are directly affected: the sunrise or sunset boat ride, and the Ganga Aarti at Dashashwamedh. Assume both may be unavailable or relocated, and treat ghat walks as unreliable while the water is high — the steps are slick with silt for days after a river drops. Kashi Vishwanath and Sarnath sit above the flood line and no source reports either affected. If you are on a fixed-date circuit such as the state Spiritual Triangle package, ask your operator what the substitute is for the Day 1 boat ride.

Check with your hotel or operator on the morning of travel rather than relying on any report, including this one — river levels move faster than coverage does. See our India pages for the wider picture.

Sources

This report is based on the following published sources. Rules and schedules change — confirm with the issuing authority before you travel.

• Ganga nears danger mark in Varanasi, most ghats submerged — WION, 03 September 2026
• Ganga crosses warning mark in Varanasi, boat operations suspended — Newsband, 02 September 2026
• CM Yogi to visit Varanasi, conduct aerial survey of flood-hit areas — Deccan Chronicle, 05 September 2026
• Ganga, Sharda water levels recede in UP, flood-like conditions persist — PTI, via Telangana Today, 06 September 2026
• वाराणसी में गंगा का जलस्तर चेतावनी बिंदु के नीचे पहुंचा — Dainik Bhaskar, 06 September 2026
• Varanasi ground report: flood conditions at the Assi and Ganga ghats — News18 Hindi, 06 September 2026
• वाराणसी में एक सेंटीमीटर प्रति घंटे की रफ्तार से घट रहा गंगा का जलस्तर, नाव संचालन पर रोक जारी (Ganga falling a centimetre an hour; boat ban continues) — IANS, via Punjab Kesari, 13 September 2026
• गंगा का जलस्तर घटा, घाटों पर लौटने लगी रौनक (Ganga recedes, bustle returns to the ghats) — Amar Ujala, 14 September 2026
• वाराणसी का जल पुलिस थाना खुद हुआ बाढ़ से प्रभावित, गंगा का जलस्तर घटने के बाद लगा गंदगी का अंबार (Varanasi’s water police station flooded; silt piles up as the Ganga falls) — Aaj Tak, 12 September 2026
• उप्र: वाराणसी में गंगा नदी का जलस्तर घटा लेकिन निचले इलाकों में बाढ़ जैसे हालात — PTI-Bhasha, via ThePrint Hindi, 06 September 2026
• वाराणसी में 50 दिन बाद नाव से गंगा आरती: बाढ़ घटने के बाद प्रशासन ने दी इजाजत — Dainik Bhaskar, 22 September 2026
• वाराणसी: बाढ़ का पानी घटा तो फिर लौटी घाटों की रौनक, अस्सी घाट पर गंगा आरती शुरू — ABP Live, 22 September 2026
• Ganga recedes, leaving silt and waste at Varanasi ghats — Hindustan Times, 22 September 2026
• Permission granted for operation of large motor boats in Ganga, ban on rowing boats continues — Loktej, 10 October 2026