Gandhinagar

The 11 to 12 hours long by road journey between Okha in Devbhoomi Dwarka district and another port town of Mandvi in Kutchh district of Gujarat could be traversed in just a little over one hour time from December 21 with the start of the first ferry service.

Vadodara based Dwarka-Kutchh Ferries and Tourism Private Limited, the company which would run the 220 seat ferry boat between the two port towns today soft launched its online booking of tickets in the conference hall of the Gujarat Maritime Board here by booking its first ticket in the name of the CEO of the board.

Chairman of the company Umesh Shah and Director Rajesh Joshi said that the formal booking of the ferry service would begin from December 8 and the first ferry would move from Okha to Mandav on December 21. The ferry would run non stop between the two ports.

‘Around 450 km long road route between the two towns is covered in 11 to 12 hours but the distance through sea route will shrink to around 24 nautical miles or around 44 kms and the-state-of-the-art ferry will take around 75 minutes in covering the distance,’ Mr. Joshi said.

‘There are four classes, one non AC and three AC, in the ferry. The fare for the non AC class per person is Rs 500 while that for AC (economy) will be Rs 700 and for AC (cafe) and AC (business) class will be Rs 800 and 900 respectively,’ he said.

The Ferry service being started as a joint initiative of the Union Ministry for Shipping, Gujarat Maritime Board and the Tourism Department will facilitate the tourists visiting the ancient shrine city of Dwarka (around 30 km from Okha) to see Mandvi, famous for its beach and some other places in Kutchh in a much little period as compared to the road route.

– DeshGujarat