The Bahrain-based shipping company Tylos Ferry is to launch a passenger service between India and the Gulf, the first such link in almost 30 years, reported the Gulf Daily News.
“A 5,340-ton vessel with a capacity of 1,891 passengers will call at Iraq’s Umm Qasr, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Muscat before sailing to the Indian ports of Bombay and Cochin,” said Issa Juma Ashoor Al Rajab, who is in charge of sales in Oman.
The Bahrain-owned ferry M V Al Salam Taba will target the millions of Indian expatriate workers and their families in the Gulf states, he said.
Tylos Ferry said the shipping line had received UN approval to run the sea ferry link with Iraq.
The cheapest deck seat on the ferry will cost less than one-quarter of the current air fares to India, a welcome development for Indians who account for most of the low-paid foreign workforce in the Gulf. These workers complain of high prices for air tickets.
Tylos Ferry will sail twice a month to Bombay and once a month to Cochin, with the maiden voyage scheduled to depart from Um Qasr on June 1, said the paper.
Rajab said that the ship would take 52 hours to travel from Muscat to Bombay.
A second ship, with a capacity of 2,400 passengers, will extend the service to Colombo in November – Albawaba.com
