Kolkata: The keel-laying ceremony to mark the beginning of construction of 13 eco-friendly hybrid ferry vessels was held at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE)
on Thursday. The state Transport department has handed over GRSE the responsibility of building 13 electric vessels which will be used for ferrying of passengers through waterways in the city and its outskirts.
“The GRSE will manufacture these 13 electric vessels at a total cost of Rs 240 crore. 7 vessels will have seating capacity of 100 passengers each while six will have similar arrangements for 200 passengers each. The delivery of the vessels will start from December 2025.
The vessels will be hybrid, capable of running in electricity as well as diesel,” said Snehasis Chakraborty, state Transport minister. Presently, 138 vessels are in operation among which 50 per cent that have been procured in the last 10 years are less polluting but the rest in the fleet that have been procured over the years since 1978 to 1990 are highly polluting. With the introduction of the new eco vessels, the state will be replacing the highly-polluting ones that are in operation for a long time. On January 9, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated the first-of-its-kind electric vessel in the country from the transit camp of the Gangasagar pilgrims at Outram Ghat. The vessel named as ‘Dheu’ (wave) with seating capacity of 92 passengers is presently doing pleasure trips from Millennium Park to Belur-Dakshineswar.
The state Transport department is coming up with a number of new jetties along the riverine stretch of Nurpur near Diamond Harbour till Tribeni in Hooghly. Charging stations are also being set up in the jetties. The massive work taking place in the waterways is part of the ‘Inland Water Transport and Modal Integration of Transport and Urban Upgradation’ project taken up by the state government. The total cost of the project is Rs 1,021 crore out of which the World Bank Loan is around Rs 700 crore.