Chennai is all set to become a cruise hub as more ships will connect various destinations in the next few years, Jurgen Bailom, president and CEO, Mumbai-based Waterways Leisure Tourism Limited, said on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the India Maritime Week 2025, he said, Waterways Leisure Tourism Limited, which operates Cordelia Cruises, will make Chennai its home port (from where the ship departs, makes a voyage and returns).
“We are going to be staying all year around in Chennai… We will add more ships in the next 3-5 years,” he said. Each ship can accommodate 2,500 passengers.
From Chennai, there is one ship of Cordelia Cruises that makes trips for four months a year. “In the next five years, we will handle 1.5 to 2 million passengers a year. Chennai will become the gateway to Malaysia, Thailand, Andaman, Puri, Kolkata, Puducherry and Sri Lanka,” he added.
He said that Chennai would be the cruise hub. “At present, we are home porting in Mumbai. [Apart from Chennai], we will add Visakhapatnam and Goa as home ports,” he said.
While addressing a session on ‘Tamil Nadu Ports: Gateway to Growth, Enabling Trade, Tourism & Industrial Corridors’, Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports E.V. Velu said the State has become a key hub for export-import trade, fishing harbours, seafood processing, shipbuilding and repair, recycling industries, and maritime tourism and international cruise passenger transport. “Tamil Nadu will continue to be a key partner and a model state in India’s grand mission to transform the nation into a global maritime hub,” he said.
Sunil Paliwal, chairman, Indian Ports Association, Chennai Port Authority, and Kamarajar Port Limited, invited investors to Tamil Nadu. “It is the only State that has three major ports: Kamarajar Port, Chennai Port and V.O. Chidambaranar Port.”