Sri Lanka: Till last year, the ship carried thousands of troops, civilians and supplies between the east and north coasts of a nation at war. On New Year's Eve it will carry flowing liquor and warm food on board, fireworks above, and around 400 guests gyrating to the tunes of DJs from UK and Turkey.
The ship, the Jetliner of the Sri Lankan Navy, will be the venue of a party in Colombo. Between 2006 and 2009, the ship, under the protection of fighter aircraft, artillery guns and helicopter gunships, ferried troops and civilians between Trincomalee (east) and Jaffna (north) as the land route was closed.
Now a private company has hired the vessel for over a million Sri Lankan rupees (around Rs 4 lakh) for the night-long party. The Jetliner has been in demand since the navy decided to put it on hire.
Advertisement |