Nitin Gadkari said his ministry was working on a cruise route from Mumbai to Bali (Representational)

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said his ministry was working on a cruise route from Mumbai to Bali, Indonesia, via Kochi and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands."Hundreds of thousands of Indians travel to Bali. They can travel from Mumbai by cruise. This will become a big tourism attraction. One lakh tourists from our country travel to Singapore by cruise. Our effort is to develop cruise tourism here," Mr Gadkari told reporters on the sidelines of a government function in Panaji.

The Minister also said that a convention of travel and tourism operators was being organised in Mumbai to discuss development of the holiday cruise industry along the Western coast.Speaking about an ambitious sea plane initiative, Mr Gadkari said, "All rules have been formalised by Air Traffic Control authorities for sea planes. It will be finalised this month".