Gateway-Mandwa route tickets go online, to ease long queues

Those who wish to visit Mandwa from Gateway of India will no longer have to stand in serpentine queues for buying passenger boat tickets. Instead, they can now book e-tickets as the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) has taken its ticketing platform online.

From January 19, E-tickets for ferries were available on the MMB's website. The online move will spare passengers the trouble of waiting in queues for over an hour. E-ticketing will soon be in place for the Gateway-Elephanta route as well officials said.

"To save time spent by passengers in booking tickets at ticket windows, and also to promote cashless transactions, we have started online booking," said Sunil Mahajan, information technology (IT) officer, MMB.

The e-ticket is a pilot project initiated by Mahajan and captain Sanjay Sharma, chief port officer, MMB. The MMB operates a total of 120 ferries daily on the Gateway-Mandwa (Alibag) and Gateway-Elephanta routes.

Earlier people had to spend at least 1.5 hours, on an average, before being able to board the ferries — a wait of roughly an hour in the the ticket window queue and 30 minutes in the boarding queue. "Now all that passengers have to do is book their ticket online, take a print out, and arrive at Gateway of India 10 minutes prior to boarding the ferry. They will be given priority through security check, and then let onto the boat," Mahajan said.