29 employees of Ghogha-Dahej Ro-Ro Ferry service laid off

29 employees of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project, Ghogha-Dahej Ro-Ro Ferry Service have been released from the service on Monday after paying their half salary.

Gandhinagar: As many as 29 employees of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project, Ghogha-Dahej Ro-Ro Ferry Service have been released from the service on Monday, after paying their half salary.

According to sources, the Ro-Ro Ferry service has been closed since March 31 due to insufficient dredging.

Following this, the company has decided to pay half the salary to all the employees from this month and 29 out of 33 employees have been released after paying half salary, sources said.

Speaking to ETV Bharat in a telephonic conversation, the company's CEO DK Manral said," The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) did not carry out adequate dredging in the sea towards Dahej so that the ship could not run smoothly in the seawater due to lack of depth. So we decided to close the Ro-Ro Ferry service."

"The current work will be carried out with the rest four employees. The company has promised that all these people will be reinstated when the ferry service is started," Manral said.

Reportedly, Ro-Ro ferries are very common in European countries. This was made to reduce the travel time between peninsular Saurashtra and south Gujarat by five hours through the Gulf of Khambhat.

Notably, the ro-ro project's first phase was completed at the cost of Rs 615 crore. It is a route of 31km between Ghogha and Dahej across the Gulf of Khambhat. The idea of the ferry service was first conceived in the early 1960s. The foundation stone for current works was laid by Narendra Modi in 2012 when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.