Maharashtra revives proposal for passenger ferry service in Mumbai

The Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) is making yet another attempt to launch a coastal ferry service in Mumbai to ease the burden on the overstretched road and railway network.

Experts in transportation have welcomed the move but are sceptical of its viability as, over last 20 years, a number of such projects have failed to move beyond the drawing board.

Recently, MMB had called for Expressions of Interest from companies to launch passenger ferry service between Nariman Point and Borivali.

CEO of Indian National Shipowners’ Association, Anil Devli, said that one main obstacle, which has prevented Mumbai region from having water transportation, is the high-cost infrastructure such as jetties at multiple locations on Mumbai’s coast. In the past, projects were formulated on the tender conditions that the jetties would be built by the private companies. Therefore, the projects never materialised, he said.

Devli pointed that worldwide the jetties are created by governments. In cargo shipping sector, the Centre builds the cargo terminals at ports, which are then operated by private terminal operators. The ports get a royalty from the operators. A similar model should be followed by the Maharashtra government, he said.

The state government could identify the locations for creating fixed or floating jetties. Once the infrastructure is created, a horde of shipping companies trying would try to get contracts for ferrying passengers and maintaining the terminal, Devli said.

Devli said that setting up the water transport system for the Mumbai region was never given to one agency. State government agencies such as MMB, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation and City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd have tried their hand at setting up the service.

He added that the sea transportation project will not face any technical challenge other than the rough seas during the monsoon seasons. But even if the service is available for nine months in a year then it will provide a huge relief to the commuters of Mumbai region.

The Mumbai city’s main public transportation of suburban railway is literally bursting at its seams. Every day about eight million passengers use the train network riding on more than 2,800 trains. The network is hugely overcrowded during morning and evening peak hours, where every rail coach carries more than four times its designed capacity.

Senior Transportation Planner, Arun Mokashi, who has worked with multilateral agencies, including World Bank and Asian Development Bank, said that on the west coast of Mumbai the wave action is high, therefore it will require advanced catamarans for sailing on the sea, he said

A senior MSRDC official said the state government is not very committed to setting up the service. In the past, a number of internal fights have happened between the two ports managements of Mumbai region and MMB. The subsidy provided by the state government was never adequate. Such project cannot survive on ₹10 and 15 crore subsidy and it needs a ₹1,000-crore budgetary support, he said.

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