Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday give another gift to his home State, Gujarat, when he flags off a Ro-Pax ferry service between Hazira and Ghogha and inaugurate a terminal for it, connecting South Gujarat with Saurashtra via the sea. The service is expected to boost efforts to harness waterways and integrate them with the economic development of the country.
Mr. Modi will inaugurate the Ro-Pax terminal at Hazira and flag off the service between Hazira, a mega coastal industrial hub near Surat, and Ghogha near Bhavnagar through videoconferencing.
During the virtual event, Mr. Modi will also interact with local users of the roll-on/roll-off passenger service (Ro-Pax).
“Tomorrow is very important day for Gujarat. Surat and Saurashtra are going to be connected through waterways,” Mr. Modi tweeted on Saturday.
The project will mark a big step towards the NDA government’s vision of harnessing waterways and integrating them with the economic development of the State as well as the country.
The Ro-Pax Terminal at Hazira is 100 meters in length and 40 metres in width, costing approximately ₹25 crore, as per a statement issued by the PMO.
The terminal has wide-ranging facilities, including an administrative office building, a parking area, a substation and a water tower.
The Ro-Pax Ferry Vessel ‘Voyage Symphony’ is a three-deck vessel with a capacity of 30 trucks (of 50 MT each) on the main deck, 100 passenger cars on the upper deck and 500 passengers plus 34 crew and hospitality staff on the passenger deck.
The project will reduce the distance between Ghogha and Hazira from 370 km to 90 km and travel time from 7-8 hours by road to just two hours by sea.
The ferry service, while making three round trips per day on the Hazira-Ghogha route, is projected to annually transport about 5 lakh passengers, 80,000 passenger vehicles, 50,000 two-wheelers and 30,000 trucks.
