13th cruise vessel calls at New Mangalore Port

Mangalore, March 8: Cruise vessel M V Seaboourn Legend with 190 cruise passengers and 173 crew members called at New Mangalore Port on Thursday.

This is the 13th cruise vessel calling at the Port during the current financial year 2011-12.

The vessel came to NMPT as its first port of call from Indonesia and sailing out to Goa later in the evening and from there to Mumbai Port.

Majority of the passengers were from USA & UK. 134 passengers have opted for ground tour arranged by M/s Lia Travels, Mangalore, the local tour operators.

The passengers have visited places like cashew processing unit at Bykampady, 1000 Pillar Jain temple, Moodabidri, Soans Farm, monolithic statue of gomateshwara, at Karkala, Gokarnanatha temple, Kadri temple, St. Aloysius chapel, etc.

M/s J.M. Baxi & Co. are the agents of the vessel. Another 14 passengers have disembarked at the port and opted to go by air to Delhi and Agra and will be boarding the same vessel at Mumbai. Being the First Port of Call, arrangements were made for immigration by the local officers duly authorised by the Bangalore Immigration Authority.

Dr. P. Tamilvanan has stated that this cruise liner is in her repeated 3rd call to NMPT during the current financial year. 4 more vessels are scheduled to call during the last week of the current month. A giant cruise vessel M.V. BRILLIANCE OF SEA with 3000 passengers and 1200 crew is also expected to call at the Port on 1st April 2012 which will be the largest cruise vessel ever calling at the Port. This giant vessel having a length of 298 metres is again expected to call at NMPT on April 12, 2012.