Kolkata: Around 6 pm on Sunday, a sleek 90-feet luxury liner will slip into a berth at the Kidderpore docks a princess of sorts among the large, dull merchant vessels, the port of Kolkata is used to receiving. The MV Island Sky will disembark 75-odd passengers and prepare for its next cruise from Kolkata to the Maldives.
The 4,280 DWT vessel has been rated as Superior' class and has a crew of 72. Its maximum passenger capacity is 118. European and American tourists will fly into Kolkata on Monday and board the vessel.
Before it departs, the tourists will be taken around Kolkata in luxury buses and will also have lunch in the city. They will visit Victoria Memorial, Kalighat and the Indian Museum before embarking on the 17-day voyage.
Among those who will join the cruise from Kolkata is said to be former MP Krishna Bose and a group of scholars from Harvard University. "On Tuesday, the ship will cruise down the Hooghly on its way to the sea. On the way to Male, the ship will anchor at Paradip, Vizag, Chennai, Colombo, Tuticorin, Trivandrum, Lakshadweep and Cochin.
The ship has 60 spacious cabins. It has a swimming pool on deck and facilities for water sports. Earlier known as Renaissance VIII, the ship was refitted in 2003. It's a safe vessel with modern lifesaving equipment," an officer said.
It's not cheap, though. Tourists will have to shell out anything between £4,500-5,000 (upward of Rs 4,00,000) for the cruise. The cruise operator recommends that the crew be paid a handsome tip of US$12 (nearly Rs 500) per passenger per day.
Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) officers said they will provide all assistance to the cruise liner including pilotage and berthing facilities. Special care will be taken to ensure that the tourists do not face any hassles.
"Nowadays, we get few cruise or passenger vessels at the port. Earlier, we even had a library' ship calling on Kolkata every year. People would be allowed into the ship to read books and purchase rare collections. It is part of our plan to develop better cruise facilities," a senior officer said.
The last time a cruise liner had called on Kolkata was in January 2007, when the French cruise liner MV Le Levant dropped anchor. The skipper of the vessel had not felt too comfortable in handing over control of his vessel to a Hooghly river pilot.
1 comment:
Hi I found your link from Entrecard and I have a PR3 blog with very less no. of links. I would like to exchange link with you. If you are interested then plz add my blog http://varunwithu.blogspot.com/ with the Title "Varun Blog" Thanks and Happy New Year 2009 to u.
Post a Comment