Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Jan 02: The passenger vessel MV Kalighat was sent for Survey at Cochin from Port Blair on 25, November 2022 and on 30th November 2022 the ship reached Cochin but instead of making arrangements for dry docking or other repair works the ship has been kept in anchorage for more than a month now.
As per sources there is shortage of food items onboard the ship and also due to menace of cockroaches and rats life has become difficult for crew members.
Adding to the plight, out of three only one DG set is working and because of this most of the ACs of the ship are now working.
One wonders if the dry dock is not available for MV Kalighat why the ship was taken to Cochin? The SCI which has the duty of maintaining the ship must have coordinated with the dockyard for this.
Some other experts question that if dry dock is not available by this time other repair works of the ship at the port could have been carried out but keeping the ship in anchorage is a sheer wastage of tax-payers’ money.
When contacted, Mr. Senthil, the superintendent of SCI refused to comment anything in this regard. He even refused to share names or numbers of other senior officers of SCI to get a version of SCI in this regard.
At present only four ships are available for Inter-Island viz MV Sindhu, MV Nalanda, MV Bharat Seema and MV Dering, which is not enough to cater to the needs of Islanders. Out of the four MV Sindhu can’t sail for remote Islands for some reasons. In this situation keeping a ship at anchorage for more than a month is a loss for everyone. Hope the Administration will take up this matter with SCI and resolve this issue.
