Nishar Mohammed & Savita Kumari
Port Blair, Feb 25: Unavailability of Tug Boat has become a major issue for various ships reaching Haddo Port for berthing. Andaman Sheekha Daily had earlier highlighted this issue but the Administration has failed to take any preventive measures yet. In many cases it has been observed that PMB is taking help from Tug Boats of Andaman Nicobar Command, to manage the situation.
As per insiders, recently MT Hari Akash, an oil container cargo vessel had to wait for nearly 24 hours to berth at Haddo Port. There are many such cases which are going unnoticed.
According to reports, the Port Management Board at Haddo Jetty has been witnessing shortage of tug boats for months as the lone operational tugboat named MT Andaman, is now under repair for a couple of months, it is learnt.
When Andaman Sheekha Daily contacted a senior officer of PMB, he said that the vessel MT Hari Akash has already berthed this morning.
“We have one tugboat named MT Andaman, which is presently under repair,” he added.
However, he refused to agree that there is any such problem, for which crew members of any vessel are facing problems, due to shortage of tug boats.
