25 August 2019 - The Bella Boka project has had a good start this week. The idea to revive the tradition of using waterways in Boka Kotorska for the transportation of citizens and tourists, which has been almost forgotten during the past decades has received a warm welcome in the bay, both from guests and natives.
The solar vessel Elettra and hybrid Graziana as part of the Bella Boka project started their trips on the routes Herceg Novi-Tivat-Perast and Perast-Kotor this Tuesday and the first impressions are more than satisfactory, says the owner and general manager of Bella Boka, Riccardo Bonetti for TMN:
“I am very satisfied how it has started and the people who are using our boats are very happy, especially with the route Tivat – Herceg Novi and Herceg Novi-Tivat. We have very good feedback from the people, who have very good comments about their impressions of the connection between the two municipalities. Every day we have more people and in the following days, we will make better promotion, especially to the local people. We use our two boats to test how to connect Boka Kotorska in the best way. At the moment we are using the bigger boat, Graciana, also for the ride to Kotor, but it will be used to connect only Herceg Novi, Tivat and Perast in the final project, but at the moment we have included two boats and one boat is working with the small boat, full electric working in the area of Kotor municipality. With the bigger, Graciana we sail on a longer distance. I will check the best way to connect Herceg Novi, Tivat, Perast and Kotor. We will make the best solution, advised by the comments of our passengers.”
Graciana and Elletra will also be available to connect Bokelian municipalities and the lovers of sea routes during the winter: ”We intend to work during the winter also, but we will reduce our time-table and adapt it, for example, to transport students to school, people to work.
At the moment we are not planning to do any private agreement, such as excursions for tourist agencies, this is a public line. We are only doing public transport with very low prices for all people, so the trip from Tivat to Herceg Novi costs four euros and Graciana can take up to sixty passengers. Since we have just started, there have been some situations with the times and routes. We also have to adjust the time table. This is a theoretical time table, because we have traffic in every port. We have reservations for our place, but especially in Kotor, for example,, it is very, very hard to have the place, because there are so many boats. Then you have to wait, and it’s not a good situation, it practically happens every day.”
The Bella Boka project - Sustainable water transport by solar trimarans in Boka Kotorska has been established to positively influence the problem of congestion in road traffic, especially during the summer season.
The total value of this project, unique in the Mediterranean, has been €4,259,000, while co-financing through the UNDP project for Low carbon tourism in Montenegro amounts to 150,000 euros.
The project is very significant, because it helps reduce the level of harmful gas emissions, including CO2, and offers passengers a truly exciting and inspirational experience. It was important to have a good idea like this, but as Ricardo says, it needed people to make it come true.
