DSS Vessels give Nightmares to Passengers Travelling in Night Sailings

 

Mohammed Sajid and Tarun Kartick
Port Blair, Dec 12: Passengers in the foreshore sector and the short inter island sector are facing a lot of problems because of the non-availability of bunks in vessels, which are deployed for the night sailings for these Islands.

The worst sufferers are the aged people, women and children. The ships that are deployed for the night sailings to Islands like Mayabunder, Diglipur, Hut Bay often have no bunks and just have seats for the passengers. Adding to the plight seats on some of the vessels are also not cushioned, which cause a lot of inconvenience for the passengers travelling by the night sailings.

Usually the passengers stay awake for the whole night because of the inconvenience of sleeping on seats. Women and children prefer to sleep on the floor of the ship but that gives no relaxation to them as whenever sea is rough, often sea water, food stuff floods on the floor. Things become further difficult if fellow passengers vomit on the floor.

Usually aged people prefer to travel by sea route than buses because of the comfort factor. The old aged people also prefer to travel during the night time because they opt to sleep while travelling to avoid inconvenience, but some of the vessels that are deployed in the night sailings by the DSS are giving them nightmares even before they think of travelling by them.

When contacted for an official comment Mr. R. Veeriah, Deputy Director, Directorate of Shipping, informed Andaman Sheekha that they have no other choice than sending vessels with only seats in night sailing, whenever good number of vessels go for repair. “We try to replace the faulty vessel with other fit vessels so that passengers do not remain stranded in islands. If we cancel the vessel just because bunks are not there then passengers will suffer more. Only when there is shortage of vessels or when too many vessels are under repair we send vessels without bunk for night sailing. We are aware of problems being faced by public and we are trying to solve this problem soon,” Mr. Veeraiah added.