New ships to connect Lakshadweep with mainland

Kochi, May 6 (UNI) Two high speed ships 'M V Bengaram' and 'M V Viringili', which will connect the Lakshadweep Islands with the mainland, have been formally launched here.

Lakshadweep Administrator B V Selvaraj, Cochin Shipyard Ltd. CMD Commodore M Jitendran, and Mr Zulkifili Shareef, Executive Chairman of NGV Tech, Malaysia, were among those present at the launch function last evening.

The vessels, costing Rs 3.85 crore each, were constructed by NGV Tech at Kuala Lumpur over 11 months.

Mr Selvaraj said that the union territory was expecting six new ships to join its fleet shortly. While three 150 passenger high speed vessels have been completed at Singapore and are ready for sailing, three more 50 passenger high speed vessels were under construction at Kuala Lumpur.

Last week, the union territory administration had signed an agreement with Colombo Dockyard Ltd. for construction of two 250 passenger cum 100 MT cargo ships at a cost of USD 18.3 million per vessel.

The Central Government had also approved the construction of six landing barges, one oil tanker and one LPG carrier. ''All these will go a long way in meeting the aspirations of the people of the islands and pave the way for expansion of shipping and boost the area's economy,'' he added.

UNI