PANJIM: Those days are remembered with nostalgia by many who travelled aboard the Konkan Shakti and the Konkan Sevak. Twenty-two years later, one may get to experience those moments again with the state government passing a proposal to start a passenger liner service on the Goa-Mumbai-Goa route.
Although a private firm Blue Ocean Cruises recently commenced its cruise on the same sea route, with its tickets priced at Rs 13,000 per head, the cruise with all its luxury facilities is focussed on high-end tourists.
State government officials say that the passenger-liner service will be bereft of all luxury facilities and will serve the purpose of transportation, though with comfort. "At present, all options are open. The technical committee will decide on what type of ship will be required in terms of power and speed. Right now, we still cannot comment whether the liner service will replicate the experiences people have of the past," says Captain of Ports James Braganza, further adding that the file had received in-principle approval.
When contacted, Anupam Kishore, director Private and Public Partnership, said that the project's modalities are being worked out. Secretariat sources said that the government will shortly invite an expression of interest (EOI) from reputed shipping companies, shipping operators, shipping agents, semi-government and government agencies having proven experience in the field of handling and catering such type of operations/services for re-commencing the passenger liner service from Goa to Mumbai and vice-versa.
Many living in Mumbai and Goa will recall journeys aboard the Konkan Shakti and Konkan Sevak in the seventies and eighties. The ships berthed at the ferry wharf (Bhaucha Dhakka) in Mazagon-Mumbai and the Panaji port here. "Hiring a coolie to help you carry your trunk, and securing a place on the deck through a mad rush was the first experience one had to go through.
Once the ship set sail, everyone settled down and it was a picnic to Goa watching the beautiful Konkan coast go by. While some groups would start sing-song sessions with guitars, others would start inquiring about which village you hailed from, whom you knew, and who you were related to," says Teresa D'Souza from Socorro.
Sharing of food, kids playing board games and a game of housie raised the camaraderie and the stops at Ratnagiri, Malwan, Vengurla, and Raigad watching fellow passengers disembark on canoes, which ferried them to shore, causing an almost hour long delay in the voyage did not really dampen many spirits.
The steamer service was stopped in the late-eighties after both ships were used to ferry Indian Peace Keeping Forces to Sri Lanka.
The smaller catamarans that replaced them in the mid-nineties were described as "soulless" by many a traveller. 'The sea route on board the catamarans could never be a pleasant experience for the passengers due to the heavy rolling and pitching effects of the sea throughout the entire journey,' states the proposal passed by the state government. (TNN)
Another way of brining in more ghanttis to Goa. The railways has already brought in ghanttis from as far as UP and Jharkhand, and even from Nepal. Now these cruise liners will be used to bring in the rich non-Goans for a weekend of sex and drugs.
ReplyDeleteHow many common Goans would use these cruise liners?
Loot is the name of the game of the illiterate-goonda politicians who have no blue-print for the development of Goa and how to conserve the state's fragile eco-system.
These cruise liners will add to more pollution of the River Mandovi. Already, the river is polluted due to the effluents discharged into the river by the Casinos berthed there and by the use of barge and ferry traffic.
At this rate Goa will do to the dogs. So please my dear Goan brothers and sisters, join Niz Goenkar and kick out the 40 chors who are destroying our Goa.
Mog asundi