Water Taxis Soon On 12 Routes In Mumbai

Water taxis will soon be an essential part of the city's public transportation system as 12 new routes are to be set up across Mumbai by May. Union

BY Realty Plus
Published - Monday, 12 Apr, 2021

Water taxis will soon be an essential part of the city's public transportation system as 12 new routes are to be set up across Mumbai by May. Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed on 7th April that the water taxi services will be launched on 12 routes including from Domestic Cruise Terminal in Mumbai to Nerul, Belapur, Vashi, Airoli, Rewas, Karanja, Dharanmtar, Kanhoji Angre Island and Thane. In addition, other water taxi routes will be Belapur to Thane and Gateway of India and Vashi to Thane and Gateway of India. These water taxis, operated by private players, will have a seating capacity of 14 to 45 passengers at a time, and have been designed to cut the travel time between some of the major hubs in and around the city. "Travel time on these routes by road at present ranges between 40 minutes to two hours 45 minutes and after the launch of water taxis it will range between 15 minutes to 1.3 hours in a few cases," the Ports, Shipping and Waterways minister said. Besides, Mandaviya said that roll-on roll-off (RoRo) cum passenger ferry services, also called 'RoPax' services, will be launched on four more routes and will be operational by December 2021. The development comes after a RoRo facility was launched between Mumbai and Mandwa near Alibaug last year which became a hit among Mumbaikars and saw close to one lakh passengers in 20 weeks along with transportation of 20,000 vehicles. "After successful operation of Mandawa RoPax service that reduced the journey time between Mumbai and Mandawa from three hours to 45 minutes, we are going to operate RoPax service on four more routes by December 2021," Mandaviya said. These RoPax services will be launched on Mumbai-Nerul, Mumbai-Karanja, Mumbai-Mora and Mumbai-Rewas routes. When operational, these will significantly reduce travel time from Mumbai. The minister said that the proposed services will not only boost tourism in the state but also employment.