John Wilbert & Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, Feb 24: Long wait for ships to travel from remote Islands to Port Blair and vice versa will come to an end soon as by March 2020 a 500 capacity passenger vessel will join the fleet of Andaman’s Shipping Services, to cater the needs of the islanders.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Deputy Director, Shipping Services, Mr. R Veeraih said that the connectivity in Inter-Island sectors will be much improved in the coming months as one 500 passenger capacity vessel MV Sindhu, is at the advanced phase of completion at Cochin Shipyard and is likely join the Andaman & Nicobar fleet by March this year.
He also said that another 500 pax capacity vessel MV Nalanda which is also under construction at Cochin Shipyard will join the fleet by July this year.
Mr. Veeraih further said that both the vessels have a designed speed of around 16 knots and hence, the turn- around time will be less; this will result in more frequency of trips in the Inter-Island sector.
Mr. Veeraih further added that these vessels are capable of moving to mainland ports as well and thus, as and when required the DSS will use these vessels for the mainland sector.
“As the speed of the vessel is good the number of frequency of schedule to Southern Group of Islands as well as Northern Group of Islands will increase, hence, the problem of passengers will be solved, whereas, the traders will also be benefitted in transferring their goods more often,” said Mr. Veeraih.
