Sri Lanka keen to resume ferry service with India: Minister

: Sri Lanka is keen to resume ferry service with India to boost tourism and hopes the initiative will be made before this year-end, a Sri Lankan Minister said Wednesday.

"There was a ferry service between the tip of South India and to the northern part of Sri Lanka. It was not only to carry people but also cargo between the two countries. But, the service was abandoned. The infrastructure still remains," Sri Lanka Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Christian Religious Affairs John Amaratunga said.

According to him, the ferry service was operational between Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and Talaimannar.

The Minister said he undertook a visit to the Talaimannar pier were the infrastructure was still present. "It is from the South Indian side (Rameswaram) that efforts need to be taken up".

Amaratunga was talking to reporters at the sidelines of an event organised by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau here.

Noting that the ferry service was in existence in the "good old days", he said, adding certain problems occurred both in Sri Lanka and India leading to the service getting abandoned.

"This service was abandoned. And now, I am taking the initiative to resume the service. Our High Commission is talking to the government of India to resume the service", he said.

There was a railwayline near the jetty close to the Talaimannar pier and it can take passengers from there to any part of Sri Lanka, he said