DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, May 09: The Chartered vessel MV Coral Queen which started its sailing to Mayabunder & Diglipur with a mare 9 passengers now sailing with its full capacity of 451 passengers.
On one hand, slowly the passenger occupancy has increased to 451 but on the other hand the DSS has reportedly decreased three sailing a week to only one sailing a week.
A large number of people who are not willing to travel in Andaman Trunk Road to reach Port Blair, are happily opting for sea route but sadly instead of having huge demand for big ship, twice a week the DSS is only sending small vessels, which have a capacity of nearly 74 to 94 passengers.
Moreover sailing of small or big vessels is highly unpredictable and hence people are unable to make advance plan for their journey to Port Blair, via sea. Sometimes the sailing are withdrawn without any notice.
Here, tickets for ATR buses are also not available due to increase in the number of passengers during school vacations. In spite of this the administration is not operating additional or big ships like coral queen in Diglipur route frequently.
The President Settlers Offspring Welfare Organisation at Diglipur Mr. Babul Biswas demanded the administration to increase the frequency of the sailing of Coral queen to Diglipur, as per the heavy demand of tickets in summer vacation.
He also demanded to change the sailing time of this ship from Diglipur, from 2pm to 5 pm as, according to him, there is no need of three hours long halt at Mayabunder, like speed boats. This will also save time of the passengers.
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