MV Sishu Sathi & MV Save Life to take Kolkatans on tours along banks of Hooghly

According to the sources in the department, they had recently approached the Chief Minister to name the vessels, which will be engaged for the first-of-its-kind service in the state.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister has previously named other projects of the Transport department, including Gatidhara, Jalodhara and Pathasathi App. She had even sketched the logo of Gatidhara, under which more than 10,000 unemployed youths were provided financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each, to buy commercial vehicles to become self-dependent.

The water taxis, which are going to be introduced soon, will be operating on two routes. If everything goes as planned, one of the vessels will be operating from Millennium Park Ghat to Dakshineswar via Belur Math, while the other one will be operating between Millennium Park and Belur Math via Dakshineswar.

There are eight seats in each of the water taxis. But six passengers will be carried in each trip, as one of the two remaining seats will be for the operator and the other one for a trained person who would ensure safety and security of the passengers.

The person, who will be deployed for safety and security of passengers,

will be undergoing necessary training so that they can also guide others with precautionary measures that need to be taken.

It has been learnt that trial runs of both the vessels have already been carried out and discussion on certain other aspects of the project is going on.

It was March when the state Transport department had initiated the step to introduce the same on river Hooghly, following the lines of river Thames in London, as per directions of the Chief Minister.

There are many places of interest along the banks of river Hooghly, both in the northern and southern sides from Millennium Park. If everything goes as planned, more water taxis will also be introduced to take people for trips to different places along the river banks in the south and in that case, the route would be from Millennium Park to Princep Ghat and Kidderpore.