Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal flags off cruise operations from the New Mumbai International Cruise Terminal (MICT), in Mumbai on Monday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Cruise operations formally commenced on Monday (April 21, 2025) from the Mumbai International Cruise Terminal (MICT), India’s largest cruise terminal, built to handle one million passengers every year with an approximate 10,000 passengers per day.
The cruise operations were formally flagged off by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal who also inaugurated the renovated Fire Memorial at Victoria Docks as well as two renovated heritage buildings — Fort House Ballard Estate and Evelyn House at Colaba.
The Minister also inaugurated Sagar Upvan garden along with a shore-to-ship electric supply under the Green Port initiative.
“The MICT, developed as per Cruise Bharat Mission, was developed as per latest global standards and is expected to take a pioneering role in developing cruise tourism in India,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Spread over a built-up area of over 4.15 lakh square feet, the MICT has been developed at Ballard Pier. The total investment in the MICT project is ₹556 crore.
“Today, Mumbai, with its long-standing repute as a major maritime hub in the world, commenced cruise operations from the Mumbai International Cruise Terminal, providing passengers modern amenities for a better and safer experience. This adds to our existing such top-class international terminals at Visakhapatnam and Chennai,” Mr. Sonowal said speaking at the ceremony.
MICT is India’s largest world-class cruise terminal equipped with 72 check-in and immigration counters spread over an area of 2.07 lakh square feet on the first two floors while the other two floors are developed as commercial floors. It can also handle five ships simultaneously, with 11 metres draft and upto 300 metres length. At the parking space, more than 300 vehicles can be parked simultaneously.
Mr. Sonowal also attended the MoU signing ceremony for development of infrastructure projects with investment worth more than ₹5,700 crore at Vadhavan Port here today. The agreements were signed for development of a terminal for handling container, bulk, and liquid cargo with investment of ₹4,200 crore, development of a dedicated terminal for handling bulk and liquid cargo with an investment of ₹1,000 crore and development of a liquid cargo jetty and a tank farm with a capacity of 3,00,000 CBM for handling liquefied chemicals and related products with an investment of ₹500 crore.
Published – April 22, 2025 04:00 am IST
