Costa Serena to Home Port in Mumbai, Sailings to start from Nov 4

MUMBAI: Costa Cruises is set to home port it’s Costa SerenastartingNovember4fromMumbai,andsettoadda new destination, Lakshadweep to it’s route network commemorating its 75th year of operations. The ship will be sailing from Mumbai to the high seas, Goa and Lakshadweep.

Shri Sarbandana Sonowal, Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways along with Roberto Alberti, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Costa Cruises; Francesco Raffa, Director Asia Region &GrowthMarkets,CostaCruises;AlessandroDeMasi, Consul General of Italy in Mumbai; Nalini Gupta, Lotus Aero Enterprises, GSA of Costa Cruises, and other senior officials made this announcement at an event inMumbairecently.

ShriSonowalsaid,“Indiahassuccessfullylaunchedthe world’s longest river cruise, originating from Benaras and traversingthrough27riverfronts,andreachingDibrugarh in Assam through Bangladesh. This voyage had 32 Swiss nationals landing at 50 airports from India. For the second season, we are seeing interest from a lot of European tourists. This clearly shows the kind of opportunity India hasforcoastal,oceanandrivercruising.WithCostasailing from Mumbai, it will only further strengthen the bilateral relationship between India and Italy. The current infrastructure we have built is state-of-the-art, and technologically advanced with seamless immigration procedure. We are further improving on the necessary clearancestofurthereasecruisetravel.”

Assuring complete support from the Government of India, Shri Sonowal further added that, “We are offering completesupporttocruiselinerstohomeporttheirshipsat Indianports.Wearereadytosupportfurtherdevelopmentof our port infrastructure to accommodate large cruise ships. It is a moment of pride for us that when the Mumbai Port completes 150 years, we have Costa coming back to offer domesticcruisingoptionstoIndiantravellers.”

Shri Sonowal urged Costa Cruises to explore yearround sailings from India, depending on the weather conditions, and explore the East coast of India for opportunities.