Sarthak Kanjilall & John Wilbert
Port Blair, September 13: Traveling in ship MV Coral Queen was nothing but a nightmare for dozens of students who traveled to Port Blair from Nicobar District recently.
According to the passengers, especially the students who had to make it on the ship to attend their exam scheduled from 21st of September 2020 at Port Blair, went through a tough time due to the rough sea.
The passengers said that at this point when the sea is extremely rough, the DSS must have planned to schedule a heavy ship like MV Campbell Bay et cetera instead of MV Coral Queen.
When inquired to a Seafarer about the ship MV Coral Queen, the seafarer on the condition of anonymity said that MV Coral Queen is a catamaran type of ship and such a kind of ship is constructed to ply in calm waters and not in rough sea, “obviously there will be enough rolling in the ship MV Coral Queen,” the seafarer said.
MV Coral Queen that was specially sent to the Nicobar District for carrying the students to Port Blair sailed from Great Nicobar on the 10th of September 2020 and reached Port Blair yesterday morning.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, a student said that she has an exam at Bengaluru on the 28th of September and hence, she had to take the ship MV Coral Queen to reach Port Blair, the sea was very rough and the ship was also in high speed, it was even difficult to stand.
“I vomited several times in the journey,” said the student.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, a student who resides in Car Nicobar and was supposed to take the ship to attend her exam at Port Blair questioned, why the ship was not via Car Nicobar but Hut Bay?
“Hut Bay is just 08 hours journey from Port Blair and even speed vessels can take care of the passengers there, just because the ship didn’t touch Car Nicobar, we were shifted to Kamorta a day before and kept in a place that lacks facilities,” said a Nicobari student.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the Up-Adhyaksh, South Andaman Zilla Parishad, Mr. Gagandeep Singh Grewal who is also a resident of Great Nicobar said that since the beginning when the ship MV Coral Queen started serving in these Islands, all the PRI members of Great Nicobar approached the DSS and informed that the ship is unfit to serve Great Nicobar as it cannot make it in the rough seas, “even though at this time when the sea is so rough the DSS has scheduled this vessel,” said Mr. Grewal.
Meanwhile, Andaman Sheekha has learned that the ship MV Kalighat which can serve the Great Nicobar region well, left Port Blair on 10th August 2019 for Drydock in Cochin and even one year has been passed the ship is still in Cochin and the drydock works have not yet completed.
The DSS must answer all the questions raised by the passengers, who have suffered so much during the journey and also the reason behind why such a long time has been taken to bring the ship MV Kalighat back into service.
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