The much-awaited resumption of high-speed passenger ferry service between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka will begin on October 10 after a gap of nearly four decades.
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According to official sources, the High-Speed Craft (HSC) Cheriyapani, owned by the Shipping Corporation of India, and a 14-member crew arrived at Nagapattinam on Saturday evening. The vessel commenced its trial run from Nagapattinam port on Sunday around 09.40 a.m. and took roughly three hours to reach Kankesanthurai, which is roughly 60 nautical miles away, sources said.
The Shipping Corporation of India roped in a private travel agency to sell tickets. The one-way ticket for the travel would cost around ₹7,670, said Syed Zuhair, director of K.P.V Shaik Mohamed Rowther & Co Private Limited. Each passenger could carry up to 50 kilograms of baggage onboard during their travel. The vessel could accommodate 150 passengers, besides the 14-member crew.
Since operating the ferry service involves the neighbouring island nation, the Union and State governments had made infrastructure arrangements for setting up office spaces for departments such as Customs, External Affairs, Shipping, Immigration, and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), beside the newly built passenger terminal, said official sources.
Nagapattinam is a non-major port located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal at the estuary of River Kaduvaiyar that flows south of the town between Akkaraipettai and Keechankuppam fishermen villages. Recently, the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board started dredging the Kaduvaiyar River estuary to remove accumulated silt at an estimated cost of ₹ 3.5 crore to facilitate the movement of large vessels.
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