Officials take hovercraft ride to survey inland waterways

Officials of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) conducted a joint inspection of inland waterways on a hovercraft of the Coast Guard on Tuesday morning.

The inspection was the part of a proposed project to connect Belapur Reti Bunder to Bhau Cha Dhakka and Belapur to Mora in Uran through waterways. The tour began at Sarovar Vihar jetty in Sector 15 in CBD Belapur and ended at the Gateway of India.

Vikram Kumar, CEO of MMB, said, “We thought of exploring the possibility of using a hovercraft instead of a traditional ferry for the proposed water route from Navi Mumbai to Bhaucha Dhakka. So we requested the Coast Guards to take us on a ride to study the route. A hovercraft can be used even in shallow water. In Navi Mumbai, most of creeks are shallow. Hovercraft also won’t destroy fishing nets.”

MMB officials and NMMC officials will take a call on using hovercraft or traditional ferries for the project. Mr. Kumar said, “We are also exploring the option of getting a private agency to run the service. The idea is to provide Navi Mumbaikars an alernate route to travel to Mumbai.”

The service is planned to be operated by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport. Dr. N. Ramaswamy, NMMC Commissioner, said, “We have a ₹100-crore grant for NMMT in this year’s budget. If needed, ₹2 crore will be used for this project.”

Officials said the vessel to be used for the project will be decided within a month.