The government of the Indian state of West Bengal recently introduced 57 new steel-hulled ferries to serve commuters in Kolkata and other nearby cities.
Commencing operations along the Hooghly River are eleven 200-passenger vessels, forty-four 80-passenger vessels, and two 60-passenger vessels.
The new ferries are slated to replace the locally-made wooden boats known as bhutbutis that had been plying the Hooghly for decades.