TIRUCHY: On the first bon voyage between Nagapattinam and Kankesanthurai ferry service, 44 passengers, including five Sri Lankan Tamils, set off on the first sail bringing nostalgic memories of the service which was halted for more than 40 years.
Officials are hopeful that the number of passengers will increase gradually. The ferry Sivagangai has been deployed as the carrier for the ferry service.
The online booking commenced on the website www.sailindsri.com on August midnight. The service was flagged off by Puducherry Home Minister A Namassivayam, Nagapattinam MP V Selvaraj, Nagapattinam Collector P Akash and IndSri Ferry Service Managing Director Sundarajan in a brief function at Nagai port.
The ferry starts its onward journey in the morning, reaches Sri Lanka at 2 pm and in return, it leaves on Saturday at 10 am and reaches Nagapattinam port at 2 pm.
However, from Sunday, there would be round trips in both destinations, owing to weekend demand. The ferry would depart from Nagai at 8 am and reach at 12 noon and leaves Sri Lanka by 2 pm and would reach Nagapattinam port by 6 pm on Sundays.
Out of a total of 150 seats, 27 are premium seats having a fare of Rs 7,500 (inclusive of GST), while the regular seats are for Rs 5,000. Passengers can carry a maximum of 25 kg of luggage.
According to officials, the service would be operated regularly from Sunday and the number of passengers is expected to increase over the period as it is comparatively more affordable than the flight service. The travel time of four hours also helps get more passengers, the officials said.