DJ Venkatesh & E Arun
Diglipur, Aug 13: The residents of Diglipur area since a very long time were facing difficulties because of the shortage of vessels plying between Diglipur and Port Blair sectors. Andaman Sheekha had raised the matter several times in fast and after a long time the Directorate of Shipping Services had showed a little interest to solve this problem of people and increased the number of sailings a bit.
But residents of Diglipur say that minor increase in the sailings is of no use as in many cases the ferry schedules are cancelled without notice, causing more problems for residents of Diglipur Island. Last month out of the 15 scheduled sailings for Diglipur, six sailings were cancelled, without any valid reasons.
The general public of the area are facing a lot of problems to travel to Port Blair specially the elderly persons and children. Pregnant women are the ones who are the worst affected.
Further the sources informed Andaman Sheekha that as survey of many inter island ferries were not carried out in time at last moment for some or the other reasons the DSS cancels the scheduled ferry for Diglipur Islands.
Andaman Sheekha today contacted the Deputy Director of Shipping Services, Mr. R. Veeriah to know about the actual facts behind the bulk cancellation of sailings in the Diglipur Sector.
Mr. Veeriah informed Andaman Sheekha that the DSS give priority to the Islands where the primary mode of transportation is only through ships and Diglipur is well connected through road.
“We provide enough sailings for the Diglipur sector also but this problem surfaced recently because at that juncture a lot of vessels were awaiting for their survey. In a ship there are several certifications that are to be made during the time of survey and each certification takes a lot of time depending on the condition of the vessel and the availability of equipments onboard. That time was the lean time and we had to adjust with less number of vessels as the vessels cannot sail without conducting survey,” he said.
When Andaman Sheekha asked him about the future plans of DSS for procuring more ships he informed that the DSS has already planned to order 25 vessels, out of which two vessels will join the DSS fleet within two years.
When Andaman Sheekha questioned on why often vessels are swapped without notice as it is noticed that in many occasions M.V Onge is sent to Diglipur instead of M.V Baratang, he said that based on the demand of the cargo bookings the vessels are swapped. Talking to Andaman Sheekha he assured that from now the sailings will become normal and all vessels will strictly follow its scheduled. (Additional writing by Tarun Kartick)
