A ferry service launched two months ago linking Dubai with India's eastern ports of Chennai and Visakhapatnam [Images] has been expanded to connect Kochi and Tuticorin due to increased demand.

The feeder service, operated by Singapore-based Far Shipping Lines, has been operating two vessels between the ports of Jebel Ali in Dubai, Colombo, Haldia, Chennai and Visakhapatnam in every 12 days.

Now due to increased demand, the company has decided to operate new services to western ports of Tuticorin and Kochi and to upgrade the existing feeder link to a weekly service, a media report said.

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Dubai-based Vasco Global Maritime, the middle-east arm of Singapore-based Vasco Maritime, is the sole agent for the service in Dubai.

"Our service is the first of its kind in which the cargo is being carried by the same vessel directly from and to Jebel Ali to the Indian coast ports. This has been a neglected coast and nobody has taken the risk of putting one ship on such a long route before," the Gulf News report quoted a company spokesman as saying.

Earlier, cargo to and from Kolkata and other eastern ports to Dubai was transhipped via Colombo, he said.