The Hindu Business Line : Indian Ocean Cruises new service to call at Kochi

Kochi will soon become a port of call for the new cruise service to be introduced by Indian Ocean Cruises, New Delhi connecting Lakshadweep Islands, Malabar Coast and Sri Lanka.

The company, which has approached the port authorities here for a discussion on providing necessary port facilities prior to the commencement of the service, has proposed to start the service from January by deploying the vessel MV Ocean Odyssey with a capacity to carry 250 passengers and 120 crew.

The ship will home port at Goa and will touch places like Mangalore, Kochi, Tuticorin, Islands of Suheli, Thinnakkara and Cheriyam in Lakshadweep and Colombo. Cruising south from Goa, the ship will follow the ancient spice route of the Malabar Coast calling at Indian coastal trading ports and the untouched islands of Lakshadweep.

The regular cruise will commence from the middle of January 2007 and in the first service, there will be two 14-night round trip cruises from and to Goa every month till April. After that, it will again commence its service from October.

Indian Ocean Cruises is the Indian arm of the London based Foresight Group, which has 20 years of maritime experience. The company's area of diversity varying from commercial shipping to international first class restaurant operations in China and India plus running of maritime training college.

The new cruise service connecting Indian ports is a venture conceived and started by Mr Ravi Mehrotra, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Foresight Group.