Chennai: After a futile attempt last year, ferry service between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kangesanthurai in Sri Lanka’s north will resume on August 16.
The ferry service, to be operated by a private firm IndSri Ferry, will re-establish an age-old sea route long cherished by people from both sides before the Palk Strait that divides the two countries turned into a battleground over a fight for the fish catch.
The ferry service to be run seven days a week will take around four hours to cover the distance of 60 nautical miles from Nagapattinam to Kangesanthurai, a strategic port near Jaffna, the capital of northern Sri Lanka, providing a cheaper mode of transport for Tamils living in both countries.
“The vessel named ‘Sivaganga’ will leave Nagapattinam at 8 am to reach Kankesanthurai at noon, while on the return journey, it will start from Sri Lanka at 2 pm to reach its destination at 6 pm. It will run all seven days a week except between November 15 and January 15 due to rough sea conditions,” Niranjan Nanthagopan, Managing Director of IndSri Ferry, said.
He told DH that the cost per passenger between Nagapattinam-Kankesanthurai is USD 59 (around Rs 5,000) inclusive of taxes, while the ticket cost between Kankesanthurai-Nagapattinam is USD 55 (around Rs 4,650).
Nanthagopan expressed the hope that the ferry service will get good patronage this time due to reduced ticket fares. “We hope not just businessmen, but tourists also use the ferry service to travel to Sri Lanka,” he added.
The launch of the ferry service, whose rates are cheaper than flight tickets, comes amid India’s Indigo announcing direct flights connecting Jaffna with Chennai, becoming the second airline after Air India to do so.
The increased people-to-people ties between the two countries which have shared cultural and civilizational links contrasts with the battle being fought by fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are frequently arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for crossing into its waters. Indian fishermen say they fish only in the traditional waters of Palk Straits but their counterparts in Sri Lanka’s north say the problem is not their Indian brethren crossing the border but the fishing equipment, bottom trawlers, which is considered an ecologically destructive practice.
In October 2023, the ferry service between the two ports was resumed after a gap of 41 years. Still, it was abruptly stopped by the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) due to several reasons, including the non-availability of an exclusive ferry.
Until the time civil war broke out in Sri Lanka in 1982, India and Sri Lanka were connected via the sea route through the Boat Mail express that took passengers via train from Chennai to Dhanuskodi from where a steam ferry took the passengers to Talaimannar in northern Sri Lanka and another train to Colombo.
An attempt by the then UPA-II government in 2011 to launch a ferry service between Thoothukudi and Colombo too failed as the experiment couldn’t last beyond five months.