7 December 2016 12:25 am
A pre-feasibility study has been carried out by a private consortium to recommence the Indo-Lanka ferry service connecting Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu with Talaimannar in the island of Mannar in northwest Sri Lanka.
The consortium consists of MMBL-Pathfinder group, Aitken Spence and Norled AS, a leading ferry operator in Norway.
As a first step, the joint venture proposes to establish a passenger/cargo ferry connection between Colombo and Tuticorin. In the second stage, the project seeks to re-establish the Talaimannar-Rameshwaram ferry link after a lapse of three decades.
Finally, the consortium would expand the Colombo-Tuticorin ferry service to Kochi, the major port city in the state of Kerala, depending on the demand.
MMBL-Pathfinder group has carried out negotiations with the authorities concerned for several years with a view to getting approval for recommencing the ferry connection with India.
The Indo-Lanka ferry service commenced over a century ago in 1914, connecting Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu with Talaimannar in the island of Mannar in northwest Sri Lanka.
The two railway lines connecting Chennai (Madras) with Colombo enabled countless number of passengers to move between the two countries for over 70 years in pursuit of their vocations, undertake pilgrimages and family reunions until the railway link was disrupted in the mid 1980s due to the conflict in Sri Lanka.
Since then, the ferry service that connected Talaimannar with Dhanushkodi came to a grinding halt.
Over the years, there has been a steady growth of tourism with 316,000 Indians and 225,000 Sri Lankans visiting the two countries in 2015.
Trade between the two countries have also registered a remarkable growth thanks to the free trade agreement, which is expected to further increase with the conclusion of Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) in the near future.
The joint venture partners are of the view that a comfortable ferry service at regular intervals, low cost tickets and attractive free baggage allowances would entice a good a percentage of air travellers to modern ferries that would offer on board duty free shopping, entertainment and other facilities.
Connectivity between the two countries is strongly encouraged by the two governments. The Indian government helped rebuild the destroyed section of the railway to Talaimannar with a soft loan.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared open the restored line March last year during his visit to Sri Lanka, demonstrating his keen desire to re-establish the century old railway and ferry service that connected the two countries