City-based defence PSU Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers on Friday said it has bagged an order worth ₹226.18 crore from the Bengal government for hybrid ferries under the West Bengal Inland Water Transport, Logistics and Spatial Development (WBIWTLSD) project of the state transport department.

“The company has received two letters of acceptance of award for contract for design, build, operation and maintenance of hybrid ferries under the WBIWTLSD project, transport department, government of Bengal,” the company said in a statement to the stock exchanges. The order includes supply of 13 hybrid electric ferries. Of them, six will have twin decks with a capacity of 200 passengers each.

Their maximum speed will be 12 knots, and each will require a crew of five. The estimated cost of these six vessels is ₹130 crore, GRSE said.

The remaining seven vessels, which costs nearly ₹100 crore will have only a single deck with a passenger capacity of 100, and these will have top speed of 9 knots.

There is a provision for five crew members on board in these vessels.

The hybrid ferries will carry passengers in all-weather conditions on river Hooghly (part of National Waterway – 1, the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly River System) in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA), stretching from Triveni in the north to Diamond Harbour in the south, the statement said.

A joint agreement was signed among the Centre, state and World Bank in 2021 for project finance worth $105 million.

State transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty told The Telegraph that a significant amount of work is underway towards the development of inland water transport and allied infrastructure.

A part of that is introducing 13 electric ferries for which the contract has been awarded.

“We are looking for environment friendly means of transportation and 13 electric ferries are being introduced for the same. We hope to put these in service in the next 2-3 years,” the minister said.

He added that the development work for passenger terminals, start of RoRo (roll on, roll off) services and upgradation of urban areas within 500 metres of jetty precincts were also underway.

“GRSE had earlier been assigned by the government of Bengal to design a prototype for a next generation zero-emission ferry. This ferry named ‘Dheu’ was launched by GRSE on January 11,” the company said.

GRSE scrips at ₹1,658.80 were up by 0.05 per cent on the BSE on Friday.