John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Dec 10: In a major development, two prominent mainland bound passenger ships, MV Nicobar and MV Nancowry have been slated for decommissioning after giving excellent service to people of Andaman and Nicobar Islands for nearly 20 years.
These ships, MV Nicobar and MV Nancowry, which were considered to be workhorse of Shipping Services, were built in 1991 and 1992 respectively.
As per details, presently a committee for finalization of decommissioning process has been constituted by Ministry of Shipping. Recommendation of the committee is being sent to the Ministry following which necessary approval would be obtained. Sources said that timeline for decommissioning of these ships is February to March 2021.
Other than this six other Harbour ferries have also been slated for decommissioning and the names of the ferries are MV Gomati, HMV Moti, MV Bhan Singh, MV Ram Rakha, MV Dweep Shakti and MV Garjan.
According to senior officials of Directorate of Shipping Services six other vessels are also in pipeline for decommissioning, which are MV Mohit, MV Hawabill, MV Bulbul, MVF Austin-II, MV Maina and ML Radhanagar. Among these six only ML Radhanagar is non-operational at present.
Earlier, Passenger ship MV Akbar, built in 1971, was disposed off on 26.04.2018 by A & N Administration.
