Nishar Mohammed & John Wilbert
Port Blair, June 09: MV Swaraj Dweep, which was in mainland for two years finally reached Port Blair today but to the utter dismay of passengers there was no Tug boat available at Haddo Port to assist the vessel in berthing hence vessel had to wait for several hours to berth.
As per details, the ship today arrived at Port Blair with nearly 486 adults and 04 infants at around 11. 00 AM but surprisingly there was no Tug available for the ship.
It is learnt from highly placed sources that the ship MV Swaraj Dweep had requested for two Tugs but not a single Tug boat was available to assist the ship in berthing.
As per norms it is the responsibility of Port authority to arrange Tug in advance for any big vessel for the safety of the vessel as well as the safety of Port but in this case, call it lack of resources or failure of the PMB, Tug was not arranged on time.
Hence the vessel was sent for anchorage for nearly 7 hours and finally when DSS Tug MV Angad was arranged for assisting the ship, it was almost 6.00 PM.
Sources said that PMB earlier had a Tug Ocean Marvel, which was operated on contract but the contract was not renewed this time. The other Tug ‘Andaman’ seems to be out of service, which resulted in this situation.
The Andaman Sheekha Daily tried to contact senior officers of PMB several times to get an official comment in this regard, but no one was available for a comment in this regard.
Sources associated with shipping industry told Andaman Sheekha that Tug boats are necessary not only for the safety of Port and Vessel but also to tow away oil-tankers or Gas Tankers, far away from Port to open sea in case of a fire accident, to minimize any damage to the Port.
LPG Tankers and Oil Tankers regularly visit Andaman Ports and hence it is extremely important to look into this issue and keep atleast two Tug-boats in standby mode at Port Blair for any kind of requirement. In this modern age non-availability of Tug Boat, shows how poorly things are being managed in PMB.
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