Team Herald
VASCO: Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) Chairman I Jeyakumar has said that the domestic cruise between Mumbai-Goa would start by October this year.
“The vessel that would take up this operation is already at berth number four and is undergoing conversion. This domestic cruise vessel will have two restaurants, swimming poll etc and it will start from Mumbai in the late afternoon and reach Goa by 8 am,” he said.
“Though people may have assumption that cruise is loss making, but it’s not. Actually per hour earnings of cruise vessels is equal to or better than cargo handling. So, we are making efforts to start domestic cruise between Mumbai-Goa,” he informed.
He said that all clearances for the ferry services from Baina to Dona Paula have been obtained and the services are expected to be started in October by the ferry operator.
Commenting on MPT’s plan on Cruise tourism, he said, “We handled 36 vessels till March this year and for the next year already 47 vessels have lined up. Our idea is by 2022, 100 cruise vessels will visit Mormugao port out of which sizable number will be of domestic cruise.”
