Ahmedabad: India’s first Ro-Pax ferry service between Ghogha and Dahej ports will be launched by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on 27th October. With this the Vessel ‘Voyage Symphony’ which has been made in South Korea will sail on its maiden journey from Ghogha terminal to Dahej. Voyage Symphony has already conducted trial runs on this route successfully recently.

The high speed ‘passenger’ ferry service on the same route was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22nd October 2017.

Detox Group, the group operating the Ro-Ro ferry service between Dahej and Ghogha ports under the Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) – Indigo Seaways Pvt. Ltd. is a Surat based company with an experience of over two decades in the field of Environmental Engineering, industrial and domestic waste management and development and operations of environmental infrastructure facilities across India. The Ro-Ro ferry service is a public private partnership(PPP) project of Gujarat Maritime Board(Government of Gujarat) and Indigo Seaways Pvt. Ltd(ISPL).

The project is launched in the Gulf of Cambay between the Dahej and Ghogha ports of Gujarat. It is a challenging project as the daily tidal variation is more than 11 m and the currents are more than 4 – 5 nautical miles during the day. Developing such a project in such adverse conditions was the biggest challenge the GMB had taken. GMB has completed its job by creating infrastructure and now ISPL shall take up the ferry operations.

The Ro-Pax ferry service that will shuttle passengers as well as multi-wheeled cargo, will act as bridge between South Gujarat and Saurashtra, helping promote business and increase revenue generation with he same infrastructure. The Ro-Pax ferry service will reduce the travel time for cargo and passengers from 10-12 hours to just 1.5 hours. ‘Voyage Symphony’ has a capacity to load 60 trucks, 5-7 buses, 25,40 cars, 40 bikes and a cumulative capacity to carry 525 passengers on board per voyage.

The journey, which will be economical as compared to road travel, shall also help to reduce congestion on highways and reduce carbon footprint. For multi-wheeled empty cargo(including one driver and cleaner), the charges stand at Rs 4500 for trucks, Rs 4500 for buses, Rs 800 for cars, and Rs 150 for two wheelers. Additional charges applicable for cargo shall be Rs 125 per tonne in case of trucks and Rs 2500 for 36-passenger per bus. The price of a one-way ticket for passengers will range between Rs 200 and Rs 400 depending on the class of seating.

The vessel, Voyage Symphony is of 2015 make and built in Korea with an approximate length of 110 m, gross registered tonnage of 6543 mt and draft of 3.8 m. The Ro-Pax ferry is a double-ended ferry that shall sail at an average speed of 15-17 knots with a sea transit time of 1 hour between Dahej and Ghogha ports. Commercial operations shall be starting from 27 October after which the vessel shall do two round trips per day and within 6 months the vessel shall be completing upto 6 round trips per day.

The round trip between Bhavnagar to Surat, which currently takes 36 hours, can now be completed in 12 hours which will increase the revenue for the bus and truck operators. The decreased run time of vehicles will reduce the consumption of fossil fuel and reduce air pollution considerably.

ISPL shall also be starting an end-to-end bus service for passengers traveling from Surat to Bhavnagar. While the passengers can board the bus from Surat, Bharuch or Ankleshwar and de-board at Bhavnagar, the bus will be ferried between Dahej and Ghogha as a part of the journey. The end to end fare for this bus service will be Rs 500 per person.

Apart from this, ISPL also plans to schedule special trips for the Jain community to visit Palitana. It normally takes 3 days for people traveling from Mumbai to complete one visit to Palitana, but this ferry will help them complete their tour in 36 hours.

For the high speed passenger ferry ISPL has invited bus operators to utilize this ferry for transporting their passengers at a cost of Rs 350 per passengers for a round trip. This will reduce the travel time, wear and tear on vehicles and ensure the fastest route for transportation of passengers. The fast passenger ferry can make around 8 round trips in a day which means that it can transfer 3400 passengers per day.

Highlights of interaction:

– Last year, the Prime Minister had launched passenger ferry service on this route. To be launched on October 27th will be passengers cum vehicles transportation service or Ro-Pax service with a new vessel from South Korea.

– While passenger ferry service was suspended during the period of monsoon, the Ro-Pax service with its separate vessel will be suitable for monsoon operation also. In fact the Ro-Pax vessel arrived in Gujarat from China traveling a long sea route during monsoon. However in extra-ordinary circumstances, when weather is not favorable, Ro-Pax service will not be operated.

– Average speed of Ro-Pax ferry vessel will be 14 knots.

– Each passenger will be insured for journey.

– MoU for this PPP project was signed in year 2011 edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit.

– Estimated investment by private company in this project is Rs 130 crore.

– The company has tied up with medical hospitals on both end of the journey.first aid kit will be available on board.

– As per an estimate around three years ago daily over 3,000 trucks/buses and 2,000 cars were traveling on Bhavnagar-Surat road route. They have cheaper and faster option to travel by sea route with introduction of Ro-Pax ferry service.

– Occupancy rate before monsoon in passenger ferry was 23%.

– Talks are underway with bus operators for some mechanism under which they may deploy their buses at both end(Dahej and Ghogha) and transfer the passengers for further journey from and to passenger ferry.

– Long distance buses would prefer to use Ro-Pax vessel.

– 15 minutes before arrival at either end, announcement will be made in Ro-Pax vessel following which, the passengers will vacate the seating area on the deck and shift to take their seat again in bus.

– Essar is building a jetty at its Hazira facility for ro-ro ferry service. It is likely to be built by March next year. Once that happens, ferry service to Hazira(Surat) will be possible.

– Around 100 persons are directly employed in this project by the company.

DeshGujarat