VietNamNet Bridge – Saigon Boat Co. Ltd. will organize tours using oared boats to take tourists on an excursion along Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal in early December.

Each boat can carry around 20 passengers from the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden in the city’s District 1 to Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in District 3 for around two hours.

With good weather conditions, the service will be available all day from early morning to 11 p.m., said a source from the company.

“The canal section from the zoo to Vinh Nghiem Pagoda has a beautiful landscape on the two banks so we have decided to launch the service there. The canal is around 60 meters wide and therefore it is suitable to use oared boats, which will also help bring pleasure to passengers,” said Phan Xuan Anh, an advisor to Saigon Boat.

As clearance at some bridges is low, the boats are designed to be only one meter high so that they can navigate under those bridges.

The plan of Saigon Boat was built after the city government issued a document last week boosting tourism development on Nhieu Loc Canal.

The company will also build piers near the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden and Vinh Nghiem Pagoda.

Anh said apart from ten oared boats operating on the canal, the company will have ten motorboats operating on the section between Nha Rong Harbor in District 4 and Binh Dong Port in District 8.

A motorboat tour will take around one hour. Each motorboat costs some VND550 million, double the price of an oared boat.

The boat tour service will be offered along with the overland tour around the city by Saigon Boat, and tourists will visit the city overland before taking the boat tour, Anh said.

HCMC is focusing on developing waterway tourism. After officially launching seven such tours, the city is building piers along waterways.

Nguyen Viet Anh, head of the Travel Division under the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the city is building piers and waiting lounges near Long Pagoda in District 7, Cha Va Bridge in District 8, Mong Bridge in District 4 and Binh Khanh Ferry in Can Gio District.

“By the end of this year, around eight to ten piers and waiting lounges will be in operation. Meanwhile, the project of developing Bach Dang Wharf into a tourist port is waiting for approval. The city is working on many projects to develop waterway tours into a mainstream tourism service,” he said.

SGT/VNN