Port Blair, June 15: The Lt. Governor on 14th June 2016 took a review of the Shipping Services and all important ongoing shipping issues. Besides the senior officers of the A&N Administration, the Shipping Corporation of India, who are the Technical Managers for all the major vessels of the A&N Administration led by their Chairman and Managing Director Captain B.B.Sinha were also present for the review.
Whilst reiterating the need to make the shipping services more Efficient, Cost Effective and Passenger comfort oriented, the Lt. Governor emphasized that special attention was needed from both the A&N Administration and the SCI to firstly ensure maximum operational availability of the ships during the peak season and secondly that the Passenger Amenities and Hygiene onboard the ships were regularly updated to increase passenger satisfaction levels.
He stated that staggering of refit schedules for better availability of ships, adopting modern technology to improve the passenger spaces and amenities and augmenting entertainment facilities onboard would go a long way towards improving the overall services.
Towards this end the Commissioner-cum-Secretary Shipping informed that the A&N Administration is already in the process of concluding an MOU with Cochin Shipyard (CSL) for repairs/refitting of all the major ships of the Mainland and Inter-Island sector.
This would streamline the repairs/refitting procedures and also help in speedy turn around of ships under refit. On the behest of the MoS the CSL is also preparing a detailed report towards up-gradation/modernisation of the Marine Dockyard at Port Blair to help make repairs/refitting of smaller ships at Port Blair more efficient.
The MoS has also approved the extension of the existing Dry dock at Marine Dockyard by 90 Mtrs at a total cost of 96 crores, the work for which is likely to commence by September 2016.
The Lt. Governor also emphasized on the need to maintain a lean and efficient fleet by expeditiously decommissioning the ships which have outlived their life and are no longer useful. He stated that whilst maintaining the minimum essential number of ships in the inventory, options for outsourcing the “add on” shipping services during peak season must be looked at to reduce overall expenditure.
The issue of employment of the local CDC holders onboard the A&N Administration ships MV Akbar, MV Nicobar and MV Harshavardhana was also taken up with the SCI. The CMD, SCI in this regard stated that, whilst it may not be immediately possible to replace all the crew members in one go, they would look to do this in a phased manner. The CMD also offered to enroll the local CDC holders in the SCI roster on priority, if they so wished. The Lt. Governor directed the Commissioner-cum-Secretary Shipping and the DSS to discuss the matter with the local CDC holders and also convey the SCI offer to them.
In the end the Lt. Governor thanked the CMD and senior Officers of the SCI for being present for the review meeting and urged that such interactions should be more frequent.
