MMRDA appoints agency to prepare DPR on RoRo project

Mumbai : Finally the city would be connected to Navi Mumbai through a water transport facility provided by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The Roll-on-Roll-off (RoRo) project of MMRDA received a boost on Tuesday when i- Maritime consultants Pvt Ltd was appointed to prepare a detailed project report (DPR).

The service would be running from Ferry Wharf to Mandwa ( old RCF Jetty). The DPR would be ready by end of February. The total cost of preparing the DPR would be around Rs 18 lakhs. They would be providing huge catamarans that would be having a capacity of carrying 200 cars at a time.

" The ferry service will provide faster connectivity to commuters travelling from Ferry Wharf to Alibaug, Wadkhal Naka and Konkan. The service will benefit the commuters traveling up to Mumbai- Goa highway as they can load their vehicles on the ferries," said Dilip Kawathkar, Joint Project Director (PR), MMRDA. The announcement of the project was made in February 2010 but things were moving at a slow pace since then. The Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad had set aside Rs 100 crores of this project last year. "The ferry will take about an hour, whereas the road route for the same destination takes about three hours thus, resulting into saving of two hours," said Kawathkar.

Previously there were catamaran services available from Juhu to Chowpatty and from Vashi and Belapur to Gateway of India. However these were closed down by the Maharashtra Maritime Board and till date the city which has a huge coastline has hardly seen usage of water transport. The MSRDC are also planning a water transport route from Colaba jetty to Nerul, however the progress in that front has been too slow.