'Rolls Royce' Jet Car at Juhu Beach, Mumbai [Video]
On a typical evening at Juhu beach, the usual sights are easy to predict. Food stalls, selfie sticks and the steady roar of the Arabian Sea. Over the past few weeks, something else has been stealing attention. A white, Rolls Royce shaped “car” now cruises just off the shoreline, looking like a luxury sedan that has decided to leave the road and float out to sea.
From the sand, it appears to sit low in the water, with a long bonnet, upright grille and squared off rear profile that mimic a high end saloon. In reality, it is a speedboat wearing a car shaped body. It has been built to run as a proper watercraft while offering novelty value to tourists who want something different from the usual jet skis and banana boats.
The person behind the project is water sports operator Pramod Pawar. He first saw a similar concept on a Dubai beach, where car themed boats and other styled rides are already part of the tourist line up. The image stayed with him. Once back home, he sketched his own version and worked with a small team to adapt the idea to local conditions along Maharashtra’s coast.
That adaptation was not just cosmetic. The hull and structure had to be reworked so the vessel could handle the tidal swings and choppier waves around Juhu. It also had to align with domestic safety norms for passenger carrying boats. Only after those changes was the “jet car” cleared to operate near the beach.
The result is a five seater vessel that can travel about 1.8 nautical miles out into the sea for short rides. It is aimed at visitors who want a brief, memorable experience close to the shore rather than a long distance cruise.
Step on board and the focus on novelty continues. The cabin uses cushioned seats and simple but neat trim. There is music on tap and even a small shower facility so passengers can rinse off salt water before they step back onto the sand. The idea is clearly to keep families and groups of friends comfortable while they click photographs and record videos.
The ride format is also designed around social media. Short runs out and back allow multiple batches of passengers to experience the boat and ensure a steady flow of clips and reels. For many people on the beach, the attraction is not only in sitting inside the jet car but also in watching it glide past and framing it with the Mumbai skyline.
Local officials and operators see it as part of a shift in how beach tourism is packaged. Maharashtra already offers standard water sports such as jet skiing and parasailing. Attractions like the car boat are seen as an attempt to move closer to what people experience abroad, where themed rides, floating bars and social media friendly installations are common.
As with any eye catching new ride, there are questions. From the shore, it is hard to see details such as how consistently life jackets are used, how thorough the safety briefing is or how strictly capacity limits are enforced on every trip. Operators say the vessel has been built and modified with safety regulations in mind and that they follow standard procedures. Even so, regulators will have to keep pace as more such concepts arrive.
Day to day practical issues also matter. Managing queues on a crowded beach, keeping bystanders away from the propellers and wash of the boat and avoiding chaos near the boarding point are all ongoing challenges.
Reactions to the design are divided. Some purists see a faux Rolls Royce floating near Juhu as kitsch, especially in a city that already has a strong car culture and real high end brands on its roads. Others do not mind the mismatch at all. For many younger visitors, the key question is not whether the styling would impress a car designer but whether the pictures and reels look dramatic enough.
Pawar and his team are not treating this as a one off. They talk about adding more themed vessels, including Ferrari and Lamborghini inspired designs, along with other activities such as flyboarding. The idea is that if visitors can get a taste of that “international” flavour without leaving Juhu, they may stay longer and spend more on activities.
What is clear already is that the “jet car” has done its main job. It has made people talk about Juhu beach in a new way. Short clips of the boat carving through the waves, speakers playing film songs and passengers waving at the shore have spread across social media. Even those who do not go out for a ride often stop to watch it, which is exactly the kind of attention any new attraction aims for.