Maritime Board floats tender for RoRo jetty at Mora

THE Maharashtra Maritime Board on Friday floated a tender to construct a Roll On Roll Off (RoRo) jetty at Mora near Uran at a cost of Rs 61 crore. Currently, wooden launches carry passengers to Uran from Ferry Wharf and people can carry their bikes on these wooden launches. Once the RoRo service starts, Mumbaikars can take even their cars all the way to Uran and Jawahar Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) in the vessel.

Maharashtra Maritime Board superintending engineer Sudhir Deore said, “We have floated a tender to construct a jetty for RoRo vessels at Mora. As a result, RoRo services can be started from the domestic cruise terminal to Mora. At present, eight lakh persons travel on the Mumbai Mora sector per year. This RoRo can also be used by those going to JNPT by road and sea.’’

Another MMB officer said that there is a RoRo operator whose vessel does trips from Mumbai to Mandwa and the same can operate to Mora. “The wooden launches take 25 to 30 minutes to travel from Ferry Wharf to Mora while the RoRo vessel will take just 15 minutes,’’ the officer said.

Meanwhile, water taxi services will be inaugurated by Union shipping minister Sarbananda Sonowal on February 16. Water taxis will connect Mumbai with Navi Mumbai and other routes like JNPT, Rewas, Karanjade, Dharamtar and Khanderi. While a commute from South Mumbai to Navi Mumbai takes more than two hours, water taxis will take about 35 minutes. Four companies have got licences from the Maharashtra Maritime Board to operate on these routes.