Kochi Port agog with cruise passengers from Germany

The cruise passenger facilitation centre of the Cochin Port Trust was in a festive mood with the turnaround operation of the German cruise vessel ‘Aida Diva’ being carried out there earlier this month.

Though the centre was opened two months ago, this is the first time that the facility is being used as large vessels cannot navigate through the channel near it. During the turnaround operation, the passenger terminal hosted nearly 5,000 passengers including 3,328 guests and 1,615 crew on board the cruise vessel which was docked at the port.  “This is perhaps the highest single aggregation of foreign tourists at any destination within a short span of three days. The vessel was on her third visit to the city,” the port authorities said.

Germany-based Aida Cruises has been using the Cochin Port as a turnaround destination since 2009.

Since then, the company has carried out six turnaround operations here, each call having at least 2,500 tourists. The first turnaround was for ‘Aida Cara’ in October 2009 and this was followed by two for ‘Aida Aura’ (October 2010 and April 2011). Three turnaround operations were held for ‘Aida   Diva’ (November 2011, March 2012 and November 2012).

The vessel was berthed at BTP jetty. After the completion of sightseeing on the same day, the passengers started disembarking in batches of 150 to 200 until early morning of next day.

“A total of 1,466 disembarkations were smoothly handled on Nov. 26. When the last count was taken on Nov. 27, a total of 1,862 tourists embarked for the fresh sojourn beginning on Nov. 28,” they said.

The tourists were taken around the city in 81 luxury coaches, including five low-floor Volvo buses hired from the KSRTC. A total of 72 taxis and 127 auto rickshaws were hired by the tourists.

The port authorities said that adequate facilities had been arranged for handling the passengers. There were 14 travel desks on the ship, 10 immigration counters and five customs counters followed by CISF counter and three frisking booths.

“The port management had put into service a brand new X-ray scanning machine to check baggage. With the addition of a new X-ray scanner, there are three scanners now. The existing scanning machines were installed by the Customs Department.

She will call here again in March 2013, for the next turnaround operation.

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