Mv Auqamarine to scrap the cruise India, Sri Lanka, Maldives route
Loise Cruise MV Aquamarine set for solat eclipse
The Greece based cruise line Louise Cruises, which started a service running out of India to Sri Lanka and Maldives is pulling out after suffering losses. According media reports this is due to high cost of operating out of Indian ports.
Louise Cruises had already incurred a loss of 3.5 million US dollars in 45 days of operations, the Inter Asian News Agency (IANS) said in a report. The cruise liner had signed a deal with Kerala regional state to operate out of Cochin but were now pulling out, because of high port charges, expensive fuel, poor port infrastructure and “uncoordinated embarkation procedures”, the report said.
Excessive port charges, refuelling tax, sub-par port infrastructure and uncoordinated embarkation procedures are some of the reasons stated by the company for withdrawing from India. “But the slow bureaucratic process and poor government policies have left us with no option but to withdraw “India doesn’t have a cruise policy and we are taxed equivalent to a cargo ship, which is really unfair” said the report. Gupta was quoted as saying that 24,000 US dollars were paid as port charges for each call in India compared to 3,000 US dollars in the Maldives. The cruise was stopping at Colombo to top up fuel because fuel was 33 percent more expensive in India. The company was laying of 200 or relocating 200 crew hired for the South Asian run and its ship MV Aquamarine was returning to Europe.
The cruise Mv Aquamarine operated a successful eclipse watching cruise to the Maldives on 15 January 2010 with around 800 passengers.
Date: 20 January 2010
