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SoBo to Navi Mumbai in water taxis next year
City residents will be able to use water taxis to travel between south Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in 2020, reducing the time taken to travel by road and local trains.
City residents will be able to use water taxis to travel between south Mumbai and Navi Mumbai in 2020, reducing the time taken to travel by road and local trains.
The Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) has appointed six agencies to operate water taxis from the domestic cruise terminal (DCT) at Princess Dock in South Mumbai. The agencies will operate from DCT to Belapur, Nerul, Vashi, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Karanja, Kanhoji Angre Island, Revas and Dharamtar. Kanhoji Angre Island is also being developed as a tourist spot. According to the list accessed by HT, the agencies include west coast marine yacht services, Akivan Aquamarine Pvt Ltd and Gateway-Elephanta Pleasure Tour and Travels, among others.
Sanjay Bhatia, chairman, MbPT, said, “We had invited proposals and got six bids. We thought of appointing all agencies to speed up the process of initiating inland waterways.”
MbPT will benefit with a share in revenue and port charges paid by the agencies. “The fares will be fixed by the agencies,” Bhatia said. The state agencies have been toying with the idea of inland waterways for a long time. Initially, MbPT, the Maharashtra Maritime Board and CIDCO had planned to purchase speedboat taxis. MbPT will also be looking at introducing hovercrafts on these routes.
“The travel time between South Mumbai and Navi Mumbai will be 30-40 minutes, instead of an hour-and-a-half by road. We will also be starting services for the Navi Mumbai International Airport in 2023-24, so people can use the services to reach the new airport,” said a senior official from MbPT. In February 2020, MbPT plans to start the roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) passenger services from south Mumbai to Alibaug. Bhatia said the services are expected to start by February as the terminal at the ends are ready. The Ro-Ro services will reduce travel time to Alibaug from Mumbai to 45 minutes.
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