Union Minister Gadkari to inaugurate floating restaurants tomorrow

The restaurants have been registered with Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) for safety and security. Sea-worthiness, life-saving appliances and firefighting equipment have been surveyed and tested.

Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari will inaugurate two floating restaurants under the ongoing waterfront development work of Mumbai Port in Mumbai tomorrow.

He will participate in the Bhoomi Poojan ceremony of Mumbai Port Trust’s new Eastern Water Front. The Minister will also launch the Access Control & RFID System as well as the development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Shri Gadkari will also begin the invitation of tenders for Mumbai-Elephanta Ropeway and a Super Specialty Hospital at the Port.

The two Floating Restaurants have the capacity to accommodate 475 persons each. Licenses have been awarded for three floating restaurants – two at the sea off Gateway of India and one at the sea off Girgaum Chowpatty.  These will be available for family functions, corporate or specialized events, public meets, etc.

The restaurants have been registered with Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) for safety and security. Sea-worthiness, life-saving appliances and firefighting equipment have been surveyed and tested. The restaurants carry 500 life-jackets and 24 life-rafts and buoyant apparatus and are equipped with 2 VHF, 1 Radar, echo-sounder, GPS and AIS for monitoring ship movements.

The Mumbai-Elephanta Ropeway will be the world's longest ropeway over the sea - approximately 8 km - with all the necessary infrastructure at both the terminal ends. It will be built at a height of 50 to 125 metres above the sea level on European standards with state of art features. Total travel time will be 16 minutes from one end to the other. Around 36 gondolas can be deployed on the ropeway at a time. The Project has been envisaged at a cost Rs.800 crores and will be completed by August 2022.

The 600-bedded Super Specialty Hospital will provide improved health facilities to 75000 port employees and dependents and 1.3 crore population in the catchment area by converting the present port hospital into a World-class Super Specialty hospital on PPP basis. Cost of the project will be Rs 693 Crores. Mumbai Port Trust’s new Eastern Water Front will have an iconic building as its seaside terminal, a domestic cruise terminal, a skating rink, Ro Pax, seaside restaurant and walkway, amphitheatre and marina.

The Access Control System (Indoor & Outdoor) for visitors, employees and vehicles is designed and programmed to retrieve visitor information.  Visitor and Vehicle Management System will be in place with online/office visitor and vehicle registration. RFID enabled, multi-purpose cards are configured to track visitors and vehicles, attendance recording, identity card, etc.

For the development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), M/s Tech Mahindra have been engaged for the adoption of information technology within port operations to reduce turnaround time. It is aimed at removing paper-based workflows currently in the system to increase efficiency, common reporting and monitoring to make cost and budget control easy, and unification of computerized operations from staggered mode to an integrated functioning.

(With Inputs from PIB)