Intra-city ferries in Mumbai, is it?

A surprise awaits for Mumbai residents, as a ferry service from Nariman Point to Borivali is expected to kick-start in October 2017. Travelling from the South of Mumbai to the Northern Suburb will just be a 45 minutes ride via ferry.

The idea had first hit the news in 2008, when the former chief secretary Johny Joseph had set the bidding criteria for the plan. Later in 2012, the project was revived by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, but didn’t get a go ahead because of the lack of bidders. However, last year the project was passed on to the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) and they have received an expression of interest (EOI) from Star Ferries. The operator has proposed a plan to run a ferry every half an hour from both sides.

Considering there’s no jetty at Nariman Point currently, a floating jetty will be set up near National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). Whereas, in Borivali there is a jetty and the dredging work is still undergoing at the jetty. Initially, only an end-to-end service will start to understand the response from the people, and later a proper jetty will be constructed at NCPA, and more stops at Marve, Versova, Juhu and Bandra will be added to the proposed plan. The cost of phase I for the project is estimated to be Rs 2,000 crore.

Prepare yourself folks, for a ferry-licious ride in Mumbai.