VASCO
After being embroiled recently in a controversy over drugs seizure, the domestic cruise MV Cordelia Empress began its operations and arrived at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) on Sunday morning from Mumbai with 1,105 passengers. The ship was expected to depart back to Mumbai with around 250 passengers from Goa on Sunday evening after a short stay at Goa.
Speaking to reporters at MPT, Govind Pernulkar, senior manager at JM Baxi Shipping Services said that the vessel will call regularly to Goa henceforth.
“It is a happy moment for all of us that the vessel has resumed operations. There was some incident in Mumbai but that had nothing to do with the ship and there was never a fear over the ships voyages. The operations have commenced after all clearances from authorities and the ship could not make an earlier call scheduled on October 15 due to licensing issues but it has been sorted now. The good thing is that the vessel will complete all its planned calls as per schedule and it will make around 58 calls to Goa this season,” said Pernulkar.
Pernulkar added that the port, government and all agencies had put in a lot of efforts towards the ship operations to Goa. “The main reason being that this ship will bring in cruise tourism and benefit local businessmen, shop owners, taxi operators, bus operators, tour operators and other businesses which had faced a setback due to Covid pandemic. The passengers arriving to Goa will also move around in Goa and this will also boost the State tourism industry besides also generating revenue to the port as well,” said Pernulkar.
MV Cordelia Empress is the first commercial cruise vessel to be handled by MPT after a long pandemic break with the last cruise vessel handled in March last year.
It may be recalled that ‘Cordelia Empress’ had been embroiled in controversy following a seizure of drugs in a raid at a party on the ship by the Narcotics Control Bureau earlier this month.
