Now, you can ‘cruise’ to Malaysia from city

Visakhapatnam: The adventure of travelling the seas is becoming popular in Visakhapatnam. A private shipping company has recently introduced an international tourist cruise from the Port City.
Speaking to TOI, traffic manager of Visakhapatnam port, B Rathna Sekhar Rao, said, “Vessels to and from Port Blair are quite regular. Such vessels come to Vizag at least once a month, if not twice. Additionally, a private international cruise ‘Silver Discoverer’ is operating at the Visakhapatnam port.”
According to figures obtained from port officials, in 2017-18, 19 passenger vehicles were anchored at the Visakhapatnam port. In 2018-19, 20 passenger vessels were anchored at the port. Till July this year, six passenger vessels have been anchored here.
The administration of Andaman Islands operates the Port Blair bound vessels. While the port administration facilitates the anchorage process, a private party has been roped in to facilitate the sale of tickets.
Five vessels— MV Andaman, MV Nicobar, MV Akbar, MV Swarajdweep and MV Campbell Bay are used for the Visakhapatnam to Port Blair and back. MV Swarajdweep is the largest among the passenger vessels and MV Campbell Bay is the smallest.
Passengers have to shell out Rs 5,000 for this service and it takes around 50 hours to go from Visakhapatnam to Port Blair.
It was in 1858 that the British realised the need for development of a port on the natural bay in Visakhapatnam. However, the First World War put the proposal in abeyance. It was only after 1914 that another proposal was made by the erstwhile Bengal Nagpur Railways for the development of a harbour.
The construction took off in 1927 and the port, which was only a road stead port till then, was opened for ocean traffic on October 7, 1933.
Finally, the arrival of SS Jaladurga heralded an era of the passenger ships’ anchorage and marked the formal inauguration of the harbour on December 9, 1933.
Dwelling upon the history of the Visakhapatnam port, Rathna Sekhar Rao added that the SS Jaladurga was also used to ferry passengers from Port Blair, along with carrying food grains. “The Visakhapatnam to Port Blair ship has a history of 86 years,” he added.
The newly-introduced cruise service, ‘Silver Discover’, is operated by a Monaco-based company called Silversea Cruises, which owns a fleet of eight ultra-luxury cruise ships. While their smaller vessels can carry around 100 passengers, the larger ones can carry up to 540.
The ‘Silver Discover’ comes from Trincomalee in Sri Lanka via Chennai to Vizag and then goes to Malaysia via Paradeep Port and Chittagong Port.