Bureau Report
Port Blair, May 30: The Andaman and Nicobar Administration is planning strengthening of ticketing system for all passenger vessels in inter-island, offshore and Mainland sectors.
Presently tickets of all vessels are issued using an online ticketing system, called STARS (Ship Ticket Advance Reservation System), which is available only in nine out 36 inhabited Islands and two major ports of Mainland India, Chennai and Kolkata.
To make sure that tickets of all vessels can be booked in maximum possible Islands and locations, the Shipping Department is planning to link the STARS system with Common Service Centres (CSC) network of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
“Nearly 56 CSC centres are to be set up all over the Islands and we are planning to dovetail the STARS with the CSCs. We are planning to complete this task soon,” Captain Rajendra Kumar the Director of Andaman’s Shipping Services said in a TV interview today.
A few Tourist favourite Islands like ‘Neil’ are still out of STARS ticketing network, which often leaves tourists in uncertainty.
“Once this is done, people can buy ship and boat tickets from any of the CSC counters spread across these Islands,” Captain Rajendra Kumar added.
Lack of sufficient number of ticketing counter often leads to mad rush among Islanders, forcing many to stand in queue for more than 48 hours for a ship ticket to mainland India.
