International luxury cruise ship MS Amera arrives at VOC Port

MADURAI: International luxury cruise ship MS Amera made her first call to VO Chidambaranar Port, Thoothukudi on Wednesday, carrying 698 passengers and 386 crewmembers on-board.

The guests onboard MS Amera were traditionally welcomed with ‘Nathaswara mangala isai’ and folk dance at the additional berth of the Port. To honour the maiden call of the cruise vessel, TK Ramachandran, Chairman, VOC Port Authority and Captain of the vessel Capt Hubert Flohr, exchanged the commemorative plaques during a programme at the berth.

The Bahamas flagged MS Amera, with a length of 204 meter and maximum air draft of 44.8 meters, has 13 decks and 413 cabins with a capacity to transit 835 passengers. The ship is capable of travelling at maximum speed of 20.5 knots (38 km/h).

The passengers are from Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. In addition, five passengers have also embarked from Thoothukudi. Around 70 tourists reached Tirunelveli to visit the Holy Trinity Church and Nellaiappar Temple and more than 200 tourists made their way to Our Lady of Snows Shrine Basilica and other places of interest at Thoothukudi.

VOC Port chairman Ramachandran said, considering various tourist attractions and idyllic destinations in this southern part of Tamil Nadu, the Port is working with various cruise operators to increase such cruise vessel calls to the VOC Port in the near future.

The cruise that started from the Port of Nice, France on December 22, 2022, travelled through various Ports in Malta, Egypt and Oman, had reached Mumbai, India on January 8, 2023 and called at Cochin on January 10. The vessel left VOC Port at 7 pm, on Wednesday for Colombo and further eastwards. The ship is on a 125-day world cruise from Nice (France) to Bremerhaven (Germany) covering 25 countries around the world.