India has witnessed 1.76 lakh cruise passengers in 2016-17, a merely 0.5 per cent of the global count.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the city’s new domestic cruise terminal at Victoria docks on Saturday with an aim to boost cruise tourism. The effort anticipates creation of employment.
The new domestic cruise terminal is constructed over an area of 1.75 hectare; it is centrally air-conditioned and is well-illuminated. The surrounding area of the terminal has been converted into a lawn with walkways. These illuminated walkways will handle inflow of passengers into mid-size cruise vessels that can host around 400 passengers.
Speaking at the event, Gadkari said, “We are going to make optimum use of our country’s coastline by promoting cruise tourism in the region. We inaugurated a new domestic cruise terminal today and soon a new international cruise terminal is going to come up in the city. By developing the eastern water front, we anticipate economic boost as it will generate job opportunities for lakhs of people in the state.”
Fadnavis further said that, “We are planning to improve water transport services in city along with promotion of cruise tourism in the state. We are also planning to integrate city’s water transport services via the single smart card that is being developed for trains, buses, Metro and Monorail.”
The Central government is taking several measures like that of waiving off Goods & Services Tax (GST) along with boosting infrastructure that includes construction of cruise terminals at five major ports namely Mumbai, Goa, New Mangalore, Chennai and Cochin. India has witnessed 1.76 lakh cruise passengers in 2016-17, a merely 0.5 per cent of the global count.
Number of domestic cruise passengers is estimated to grow to 1.5 million by 2031-32. In order to promote cruise tourism, an action plan is also on the anvil that will include key steps to bring it at par with international standards.
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