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A ferry service from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka, which was suspended 28 years ago, resumed on Monday.
The sea route was thrown open as a private cruise-liner left Thoothukudi in south Tamil Nadu on its maiden voyage to Colombo. The decision to resume the service was taken during the visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India in June 2010.
Union shipping minister G. K. Vasan flagged off the service, launched after a delay of over a decade. This is expected to boost the sagging tourism industry in the southern districts of the state.
MV Scotia Prince, a luxury vessel operated by Flemingo Liners, set sail with more than 200 passengers on its inaugural journey. It will cover the 450 mile distance in 12 to 16 hours, depending upon weather conditions. The ship would sail twice a week.
Earlier, there were two ferry services to the island nation. While one was from Chennai to Mannar, the other connected Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar.
The service from Chennai was discontinued as Colombo lost interest in the sea link in the aftermath of the 1983 ethnic cleansing of Tamils. The other one had to be given up earlier after the tiny islet was washed away in the 1964 cyclone. Then, Thoothukudi port did not have the required depth to dock large vessels.
The resumption of the service has spurred the demand to revive ties with the Tamil-speaking north- eastern part of the island nation.
"To increase people-to-people contact, we need a ferry service between Point Pedro or Kankesanthurai and Chennai. It would be more beneficial," Col. R. Hariharan, who retired as the intelligence chief of the IPKF operations in Lanka, said.
Old timers still recall the steamer and ferry service which provided cheap connectivity between the two nations. Further, the boatmail train service from Talaimannar to Colombo offered excellent connectivity to the tourists.
The ship's ticket prices range from Rs 2,243 per single person in economy class to Rs 14,663 (for three persons) in first class cabin, the ship's agents said.
– With agency inputs
