Qatar-Bahrain ferry next year

Manama : In an effort to woo more tourists, a local company plans to launch the first passenger and vehicle ferry between Qatar and Bahrain by the middle of next year.

The new service will include two return trips a day from Al Ruwais port in northern Qatar to Khalifa bin Salman port in Bahrain and will take commercial as well as personal vehicles.

This will be the first ferry service in recent years to run between Gulf countries, an industry source told Doha News.

The service will be operated by the Qatari firm Gulf Ferry, with input from Doha-based Sora Marine Services.

The trip is estimated to take some 1.5 to 2.5 hours, compared to the 4.5 hour journey time by land from Qatar to Bahrain.

Driving there also currently involves crossing through Saudi Arabia. In the past, there has been repeated talk of building a Qatar-Bahrain causeway, but this has never come to fruition.

If the ferry is successful, there are also plans to operate one from Qatar to the UAE, although there is no timeline for this yet.

One boat has already been lined up to operate the route, with another soon to follow, the industry source told Doha News.

Each vessel will have a capacity of around 50 vehicles and can hold approximately 100 passengers at a time.

The “ro-pax” ferries allow vehicles to be driven straight onto and off of a dedicated deck.