Cruise Tourism in India has huge potential: Nitin Gadkari
Mumbai, August 8, 2017 : Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari inaugurated a special event, ‘The Dawn of Cruise tourism in India’ in Mumbai today. The Union Minister highlighted the huge potential for cruise tourism, particularly in view of the reforms undertaken by the Ministry of Shipping under the Sagarmala Project. He also released reports on “Road map for Sea cruise tourism”, “Mumbai Port SOP for Cruise Operations” and “Cruise terminals in India”.
The Union Minister expressed confidence in the huge potential of cruise tourism and boost for economy, calling it as a Game-changer for domestic as well as international travellers. According to the reports, this initiative would gain potential revenue close to Rs. 35000 crore for all stakeholders. Promotion of cruise tourism is expected to create over 2, 50,000 jobs and with this new initiative, number of cruise ships visiting India could go up from 158 per year to 955 per year. He also called for greater transparency, lesser red tape-ism, result oriented time bound target completion.
Shri Gadkari further highlighted that the Ministry is contemplating on the idea of use of Methanol as marine fuel so as to bring down cost of operations and promote eco-friendly mode of transportation. Further, Union Minister emphasised upon technology up-gradation, reducing human interface with increased automation for smoother and effective service delivery.
On the occasion, Mr David Dingle, Chairman, Carnival, UK – the biggest cruise line in the world, which has started home port operations from Mumbai Port, presented Carnival’s plans for India. Shri Ravi Kant, Secretary to GoI, Ministry of Shipping highlighted India’s development initiatives for Cruise Tourism. Smt. Rashmi Verma, Secretary to GoI, Ministry of Tourism, spoke on the growth and future of India as an International tourism hub. Shri. J. Rawal, Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra; Shri Arvind Sawant, Member of Parliament; Shri. Sumit Mullick, Chief Secretary to Government of Maharashtra and other senior officials were also present at the exclusive preview of the dawn of cruise tourism in India.
