A second Emirati passenger ferry on Wednesday started a service between Dubai's Port Rashed and the Iraqi port of Um Qasr in the northern Gulf, the official news agency WAM reported.
WAM said the new ferry would increase passenger and cargo traffic between the two ports, but it did not specify how often the vessel would sail.
State-owned operators Thuraya have said their boat, Manar, had a 700-passenger capacity and would run a regular service.
Another ferry, the Jebel Ali-1, has since November 1998 run a weekly service between Um Qasr and Port Rashed. In December 1999, it added a stop in Bahrain on the way to Iraq, which has been under sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. — (AFP, Dubai)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
