D J Venkatesh
Diglipur: Juy 02: The Aerial Bay jetty situated at Diglipur is on the brink of collapse if not repaired because the beams supporting the jetty are deteriorating at an alarming rate due to neglect and lack of repai rs. The crucial jetty that harbors ferries, defence vessels, cargo vessels and speed boats from other Islands is in bad shape as the beams are clad in oyster shells with cracks while some of the beams are leaning.
The Jetty is the crucial link between Diglipur and other Islands is in the state of total neglect. Last year some minor repair works were
carried out in the Jetty but major defects remain unattended. Photographs available with Andaman Sheekha show that some beams are going to collapse anytime while a few has already vanished. Not only this, the photographs clearly shows that even an earthquake
or tidal wave is enough to bring down the jetty, which will cause a lot of problems for people of Diglipur Islands. When Andaman and
Nicobar Command is planning to place more vessels at Diglipur Islands, such collapse will be a serious setback for our defence establishments.
For unloading crucial cargo, most of the cargo ship berths at the corner area of the Jetty, which is very weak. On the same area all the
massive trucks carries out offloading and unloading and hence anytime the portion f the jetty may collapse.
At this end of the Aerial Bay Jetty most of the defence vessels berths and one can easily understand what would happen in future if any
bigger vessel hits the jetty hard while berthing. Even in case of regular ferry vessels if any such incident occurs then the Jetty will
collapse with all the passengers on it, killing atleast dozens. Hope before any such disaster the administration will take up the issue of
repair of the same jetty.
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