Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Sept 04: Around 255 passengers had to go through horrible time inside MV Sentinel for eight long hours today due to a technical problem detected inside the ship during engine room readiness.
According to sources, MV Sentinel was supposed to sail for Car Nicobar via Hutbay this morning at 07:00 am for which the embarkation started from 05:00am onwards.
But after embarkation the passengers were shocked to hear that the ship will not sail on time due to technical problems in the steering of the ship. Finally after a lot of efforts the ship sailed at 03:15pm after nearly eight hours of the scheduled time.
“If there was a problem in the ship they could have informed us earlier and could have allowed us to wait in passenger hall. This is harassment and clear case of total negligence,” a passenger of the ship told Andaman Sheekha over phone.
This has become a regular feature in Port Blair that after embarkation some or the other problems surface in ships, for which passengers are made to suffer.
However, talking to Andaman Sheekha, the Deputy Director, Directorate of Shipping Services, Mr R Veeraih said that there was a problem in the steering of the ship and that’s why the ship was delayed.
He further said that after embarkation as per SOP some trials are done, which have to be followed in all passenger vessels and during engine room readiness a fault was detected today and the problem was attended.
Leave a Reply