PANAJI
The River Navigation Department has initiated a process to start a 92-seater passenger solar boat service on the Panaji“Aldona route.
The department also has plans to start a similar boat service on the Sanvordem-Panaji route in the second phase. “Around Rs 2 crore has been sanctioned for the solar boat at Panaji-Aldona route. The government has advertised for Expression of Interest (EOI) for the Boat”, informed River Navigation Minister Sudin Dhavalikar.
Similar types of boats are already running in Kerala. The only difference in the case of Goa will be that the boat will have an additional diesel engine with a converter as a back-up, he said.
Officials of RND were working on this project for the last one year and had also visited Kochi in Kerala to study the working of the solar-powered ferry boats.
RND is currently running ferry boats on 20 routes and has a fleet of indigenously built 39 vessels, which run on diesel.
