PM to flag off Ro-Pax ferry service between Hazira-Ghogha in Gujarat on Nov 8
Nov 05, 2020
By Amit Kumar
New Delhi [India], November 5 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Ro-Pax ferry service from Hazira to Ghogha and inaugurate its terminal at Hazira, Surat, on November 8 under Sagarmala programme, a flagship water transport service project of the Shipping Ministry.
The Ghogha-Hazira Ro-Pax ferry service will work as a gateway to South Gujarat and the Saurashtra region, and reduce the distance between Ghogha and Hazira from 370 km to 90 km.
Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Laxmanbhai Mandaviya said that this service will make life easy, especially for the 20 lakh people of Saurashtra.
"Today, they have to travel around 400 km to come from Saurashtra to Surat. But once this service begins, they will only have to travel 60 km by the sea route," Mandaviya told ANI.
"A terminal has been built in Hazira and more than 500 passengers will be able to sit in the Ro-Pax ferry. It will have space for more than one hundred four-wheelers, including 35 trucks," he said.
The Ro-Pax ferry vessel, Voyage Symphony, is a three-deck vessel. It has a load capacity of 30 trucks (of 50 Million Tonnes each) on the main deck, 100 passengers cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers, along with 34 ship crew and hospitality staff on the passenger deck.
The Ro-Pax terminal, about 100 m in length and 40 m in width, has cost approximately Rs 25 crore. The terminal has an administrative office building, a parking area, substation and water tower among other facilities.
The reduced cargo travel time from 10 to 12 hours to about four hours will result in huge savings on fuel (approximately 9,000 litres per day) and lower the maintenance cost of vehicles drastically. It will also result in the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 24 MT per day and net saving of approximately 8,653 MT per annum.
The inauguration of the Ro-Pax terminal at Hazira will be a big step towards Prime Minister Modi's vision of harnessing waterways and integrating them with the economic development of the country.
