DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Aug 16: The residents of Diglipur nowadays are facing severe problems in travelling to Port Blair as since last 24 days no vessel has been sent to Diglipur by the Administration.
Around 11 years ago there used to be five vessels available for Mayabunder and Diglipur every week, which was decreased to only three, five years ago.
Since last one year one or two boats are being sent to Diglipur on weekly basis but since last 24 days there are no boat facilities available for the commuters.
As per the reports the last vessel was sent to Diglipur on 22 July from Port Blair after which till date no boat was sent for Diglipur.
Ladies and children who are unable to travel in Andaman Trunk Road though old junk buses are now forced to take the 10 – 12 hour long road journey to Port Blair.
Now in this juncture the Administration is planning to operate two new boat routes to Baratang and Viper Island. Andaman Administration has got 17 speed boats out of which, MV Shompen and three other boats MV Katchal, MV Choldhari, MV Strait Island which are plying to other Islands.
Sources said that in near future there is no visible plan to add new speed vessels to the shipping fleet of Andaman Administration.
So now the question is what strategies Administration has planned to cope up with the increasing number of tourists and local population.
From captain to cook about 11 staffs are enrolled in all these 16 ships for which the DSS is paying huge amount every month while since last 6 months we can notice that only 3-4 ships are operating in whole Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There is no report of other speed boats.
The NITI Ayog on one hand is planning to open five more Islands for tourism for improvement of tourism in N & M Andaman including Little Andaman like International tourist destinations and on the other hand Administration is unable to cope with the present demand. The shipping services has clearly failed to serve the people of these Islands and this is the reason why Islanders are forced to pay excessive high rate for tickets to private boat owners.
