John Wilbert & Y Navin Kumar
Port Blair, Jan 04: The Port Management Board, A & N Islands is planning to build modern Passenger Terminal, Passenger Shed and Walkway at Phoenix Bay Jetty area to provide better facilities to passengers.
Addressing a press conference today at the conference hall of Port Management Board Building the Chief Port Administrator, Dr. R D Tripathi today said that PMB has received in principal approval for the terminal building worth Rs. 26 crores, from Government of India.
He said that the Architect has also finalized the design of the Terminal Building and the PMB is hopeful that in two or three months, the design will also be sanctioned.
“Once sanctioned, then all problems of passengers will end as after that all vehicles will enter Phoenix Bay Port area via the main entry and a new passage will be provided for all vehicles to go out to foreshore road after dropping passengers, like it is done in airport terminal,” he said.
He said that the target for completing work for the terminal building will be two years but he accepted that the project may take more time but till them PMB is planning to provide a 500 capacity passenger shed and a 4 mtr wide walkway inside the Phoenix Bay area for the convenience of passengers.
He said that the present passenger hall inside Phoenix Bay Jetty Complex is being extended and by this month the work will be over end and once completed nearly 500 passengers will be able to sit inside the passenger hall.
Regarding the walkway he said that PMB is constructing a walkway from the baggage scanning areas to the Port area, which will be four mtr wide, with smooth surface and solar panel roof.
Today’s press meet was basically called by the CPA, who is also holding the additional charges of DSS, to clear all misconceptions about PMB and Shipping Services in local media.
Regarding recent news report about stopping the bus services he said that buses were not preferred by most of the passengers and moreover the movement of buses inside the Port area was causing obstructions. He said that recently many tourists had a narrow escape because of bus operation inside Port area and hence the PMB has stopped the services.
Regarding toilet facilities he said that both the passenger hall and baggage scanning area have toilets blocks, which are also attended by cleaners on regular basis.
Regarding Port Charges the CPA clarified that Rs. 50 is charged for two ports, during one journey against the Port facilities used by passengers and hence the cost is justified. He said that regarding Port charges advance intimations were given to all vessel operators and stake holders, who have no objection against Port Charges and passengers also want better services in port.
Regarding Shipping Services, Dr. Tripathi said that four new bigger vessels are being built by Cochin Shipyard and out of these four two are of 1200 and two are of 500 passenger capacity.
The 1200 capacity vessels will be replacing MV Akbar and probably MV Harshavardhana too as both the vessels are very old and running these old vessels is not possible.
“MV Akbar has already been sent for decommissioning while in next or three months it will be decided whether MV Harshavardhana will be decommissioned,” he said.
Dr. Tripathi said that the 500 capacity vessels will replace old vessels MV Sentinel and MV Chowra. He said that all these vessels will be delivered to Andaman and Nicobar Islands by 2019 end or early 2020.
He said that considering low occupancy in Mainland vessels the frequency of sailing has been reduced and it has also been decided that once in a month Vessels for Chennai will sail via Campbell Bay and vessel for Kolkata will sail via Maybunder.
Regarding fast vessels Dr. Tripathi said that presently six out of 17 fast vessel are operational and the seventh vessel will provide services before 31st January 2018.
He added that two more will be ready by 15 February and three more by 31 March and hence after than 12 fast vessels will become operational out of 17.
Regarding Baratang ferry he said that considering the low occupancy the DSS is also exploring possibilities of connecting Baratang ferry with some other Islands.
