‘Ferrari of the Sea’: This Kerala company wants to build a luxury cruise ship to take on international giants

The second and final day of THE WEEK Maritime Conclave featured an ambitious presentation by the team of Neo Classic Cruise and Tours, led by MD Nishyijith K. John and domain expert Jithu Sukumaran Nair. The team introduced India’s indigenously designed cruise ship, which they called the ‘Ferrari of the Sea.’

Neo Classic’s latest offering features 30MW of battery capacity and can run on integrated LNG for three consecutive days. And their base of operations is in Kerala, where LNG is in abundance. This is over and above the ship’s default fuel of diesel.

“This is the first time we have shown this to the public,” said Jithu Sukumaran Nair, a marine engineer and shipbuilder, more famously known as the CEO of VAAN Electric Moto, the electric bike manufacturing startup from Kerala. The presentation was greeted with applause from the audience, as the shipbuilder CEO took us through the various engineering and luxury capabilities of their latest vessel.

Neo Classic’s goals are ambitious:

• Own and operate luxury cruise ships of 500 GT to 37000 GT within 10 years, becoming a publicly listed company with a huge market value.
• Achieve a market share of 30% cruise tourism in India.
• Operate leading cruise routes in India.
• Collaborate with large state-owned enterprises to create the International Cruise Technology and Culture Expo Park.

With luxury cruise tourism in Kerala equipped to go international, the state with inland waterways is in the right space, giving it a “market-leading advantage” and the possibility of “rapid replication” to generate profitability by 2030, Nair explained.

Industry players such as Neo Classic are looking to ride this ‘Vision 2030’ for the Cruise Bharat Mission and the Maritime India vision.

Apart from Neo Classic, the morning of day 2 of the maritime summit saw AK Bansal, Chief Engineer, Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), stressing the need to unlock last-mile connectivity through waterways in India, and Antara Cruises Chairman Raj Singh appraising the industry stakeholders about the latest in cruise tourism.

THE WEEK Maritime Summit 2025 is a two-day event held on September 15 and 16 at The Crowne Plaza in Kochi, one of the port cities of Kerala. Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, is set to address the summit later in the day.

Maritime