John Wilbert
Port Blair, Apr 05: Passengers travelling in Andaman Trunk road, especially regular commuters and cab drivers are demanding for reopening of the canteen at Middle Strait Jetty.
According to them long back there used to be a canteen on the left room of the passenger hall of Middle Strait, which was of great value for the passengers. Sadly the canteen was closed for no clear reasons, causing inconvenience to passengers.
Presently as the ferries of Middle Strait are irregular, passengers prefer to reach Middle Strait Jetty from Baratang well in advance, sometimes one hour before the convoy time, for which many miss lunch and breakfast.
As there is no canteen in Middle Strait, passenger have to wait for more than two hours to reach Jirkatang for food, often at Jirkatang their busses do not stop and hence they miss their lunch or breakfast completely.
At present the care takers of pay and use toilet sells some bottle of package water, which is the only relief for the passengers.
When contacted the Chief Port Administrator of PMB, Dr. R.D. Tripathy said that the shop was shut down following directions of Tribal Welfare Department, according to whom selling of food product inside Jarawa Tribal Reserve is completely banned. “It is illegal to sell any food product inside Jarawa reserve area,” he said.
