Mumbai that is the commercial capital of India that shelters one of the oldest ports of the world is all set to become the gateway to international cruise in India. The Mumbai Port has decided to focus on this sector. It aims to receive at least a 100 cruise ships in the next few years.
On Saturday, Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra and Nitin Gadkari, the shipping minister had marked a grand start of the new cruise season that would commence with a maiden voyage of the Genting Dream of Dream Cruises.
According to a press statement Indians would derive an opportunity to take luxury international cruises from the Mumbai Port.
And, by doing this, India would make the dream of transforming Mumbai into a gateway to international cruise in India come true.
But then, this dream is coming true simply because the Mumbai Port Trust has been adopting different measures to attract cruise ships. It has planned to give a greater priority to passenger cruise vessels over cargo ships. However, the revenue generated by cargo ships is greater as compared to that obtained from passenger cruise ships.
The Mumbai Port Trust has offered a discount of about 40% in the application charges to cruise ships.
Also, the Mumbai Port Trust has stopped ousting charge on cruise ships. An SOP or Standard Operating Procedure has been initiated phase-wise. In the year 2016 to 2017, these measures have already started to display results. As of now, 59 cruise ships have confirmed that they would be arriving at Mumbai Port. Previous year, only 37 cruises had appeared.
Apart from that, a new cruise terminal is being planned to be constructed. It has been estimated that about Rs. 130 crore would be spent in constructing it.