Mangaluru: With the onset of cruise season, two cruise vessels MV Norwegina Star and MV Nautica arrived at the New Mangalore Port on Wednesday, November 30.
MV Norwegina Star – a giant cruise vessel having a length of 294 meters with 2064 cruise passengers and 1048 crew members and MV Nautica with 590 passengers and 398 crew called at the port.
In addition to the above, 109 passengers have rejoined the vessel Nautica and 77 in Norwegina Star at the Port reaching Mangaluru by air from Mumbai. The vessels are berthed at the alongside berths 3 and 4. This is for the first time two big vessels are handled at the alongside berths.
Both the vessels came from Goa and will be sailing out to Cochin this evening. Majority of the passengers are from the USA, the UK, Canada and Brazil and have opted for ground tour and enjoyed the scenic beauty and cultural heritage of Dakshina Kannada.
Tourists visited places such as 1000 Pillar Jain temple, monolithic statue of Gomateshwara, Gokarnanatha temple, St Aloysius chapel, Kadri temple, cashew processing units, city shopping etc. These tourists were taken around by M/s Lia Travels, the local agents of the main tour operator, M/s Ventours, Mumbai and the agents of the ship are M/s JM Baxi & Co.
Cruise traffic at the Port is steadily increasing during the last three years. During last financial year 2015-16, the port has handled 23 cruise vessels with 19160 passengers. The port has created the entire infrastructure required for the cruise traffic, like state of the art Cruise Lounge, neat and tidy berth area, concretized roads, security arrangements, immigration facility, greenery in and around the port, availability of local ground tour operators, proximity to tourist areas etc.
The next vessel is scheduled to call at the port on December 1. During the current year 2016-17, 30 cruise vessels are scheduled to call at the port.
