State Bank of India and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have joined the Volvo Ocean Race India Stopover team as official banker and Partner respectively.
The race yachts, which are traversing through a turbulent sea route from Cape Town, are just 2,300 miles away from Kochi. The advance teams of Volvo and the race teams have already started arriving, Cochin Port Trust (CPT) Chairman, N Ramachandran, told reporters here. Technical bases and corporate pavillions in the Race village are being set up.
The Race village would be inaugurated by Excise and Labour Minister, P K Gurudasan on Nov 30. This will be followed by a visit of Union Shipping Minister, T R Baalu on Dec one, who will dedicate the BTP Berth extension, the berthing place for race yachts, to the nation.
Ocean Race Trade Fest, the mega exhibition at the Race village will be inaugurated on Dec 2. As the Race Yachts are expected to reach Kochi by Dec 3, a welcome ceremony will also be held in the evening in which Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, will be chief guest and state Home and Tourism minister, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, will be Guest of Honour.
The race will be flagged off at a colourful ceremony by Union Tourism Minister, Ambika Soni and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
The Chairman said there will not be any disruption of the normal operations of the port during the event. There will not be any disruption in the movements of ships and boats except for two hours on Dec 13 when the yachts will depart for Singapore after a spectacular parade in the Kochi backwaters.