Fincantieri and Grimaldi Group have signed a letter of intent to refurbish and lengthen the Cruise-class Ro-Pax ferries Cruise Roma and Cruise Barcelona by 29 metres each.
Scheduled for completion at Fincantieri's Palermo shipyard in the northern summer of 2019, the lengthening will expand the vessels' capacity to more than 3,700 lane metres, 3,000 square metres of car space and 3,500 passengers.
There will also be a 270-seat self-service restaurant.
The vessels, which service the daily route between Civitavecchia, Porto Torres and Barcelona, were built at Fincantieri's Castellammare di Stabia shipyard in 2007 and 2008.
Once complete, they will be 254 metres long and have a gross tonnage of 63,000 tonnes.
Other works scheduled include the installation of scrubber systems for exhaust gas cleaning and a zero-emission, mega-lithium battery-powered propulsion system for port operations.
