HCMC-Vung Tau sea ferry sets sail again

Nguyen Quoc Chanh, director of Quoc Chanh One Member Ltd., said the company resumed business Sunday on the 15km (8 nautical miles) ferry route.

However, it is running at half capacity now to limit the possible spread of Covid-19, he added.

Operating from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, the route currently has two ferries running 60 minutes apart.

The ticket fares remain the same at VND70,000 ($3) per passenger and an extra fee for their personal vehicle, which stays at VND50,000 for motorbikes and bicycles, and ranges from VND350,000-800,000 for cars and trucks.

No container trucks are allowed on the ferry.

The first ferry service in HCMC was launched in January to reduce travel time between Can Gio, a coastal district on the outskirts of the city, and Vung Tau, a resort town in HCMC’s neighboring province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau, to 30 minutes. The journey on road takes around three and a half hours at present.

Aside from the sea ferry, HCMC is planning on resuming the operation of high-speed boat services from its downtown area to Vung Tau and Can Gio within this week.

Since June 20, in the wake of a fresh outbreak, HCMC had stopped the operation of sea ferries and high-speed boats along with boat services on inland waterways except for some special cases.

The city has been the epicenter of Vietnam’s fourth Covid-19 wave which broke out in late April. It went through four months under various levels of restrictions and has been resuming socio-economic activities step by step since Oct. 1.