AC boats to ferry you from Navi Mumbai to SoBo from June

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has announced that it will introduce two air-conditioned boats from the city going to the Gateway of India and Bhaucha Dhakka in south Mumbai.

Residents of Navi Mumbai will be able to travel to South Mumbai in air-conditioned boats from June.

Residents of Navi Mumbai will be able to travel to South Mumbai in air-conditioned boats from June. (HT File(Representational Image))

The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has announced that it will introduce two air-conditioned boats from the city going to the Gateway of India and Bhaucha Dhakka in south Mumbai.

Each boat will carry a minimum of 60 passengers. The schedule of the service is yet to be decided, said a senior official. Ramaswamy N, municipal commissioner of NMMC, on Saturday said he will soon visit the jetties in the city to choose suitable boats. “After the ongoing Swachh Survekshan survey, I will personally visit the jetties and collect all the relevant reports. If everything goes according to plan, the boat services will be available from the first week of June,” he said.

“A huge number of people commute to south Mumbai from the satellite city every day. Travelling by boats will be less time-consuming than trains,” he added. The services are likely to begin from Vashi and CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, said sources from the NMMC. They added that they may utilise the jetties developed by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco).

Ramaswamy, however, did not confirm the news. “We may use some jetties which are not developed by us, but the project of boat services will solely be ours,” he said. According to him, each boat will cost around Rs2-3 crore. The NMMC has set aside a budget of Rs10 crore for the whole project, said an official. “A well-developed waterway transport system seems promising, given the geographical proximity of Navi Mumbai and South Mumbai. We had received the no-objection certificate from the Maharashtra Maritime Board in July ,” he said.

Kaushik Joshi, 45, an activist from CBD Belapur, said, “Two boats won’t be sufficient. The civic body should expand the services after the initial months.”