Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Sept 26: The Andaman and Nicobar Administration is about to procure 25 ships soon for these remote Islands.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha the Director of Shipping Services, Capt. Rajinder Kumar recently said that the DSS has 25 ships lined up for procurement in 12 five year plan out of which four ships will be for Mainland – Island sector, four for Inter-Island sector while 17 others will be for foreshore and harbour sector.
“We have issued tender for almost entire 25 lot. For bigger mainland going ships as well as for Inter-Island ships we are only doing Global tender. Global tender does not mean that the ships will be made in foreign but this will be a competition for our Indian Shipyard also,” the Director added.
He said that earlier the Administration was restricting to only Indian Shipyards but now because of bad experience of past and with the proper approval from the Ministry the Administration is going for global tender.
“The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are suffering for the delay and ultimately it affects us,” the Director added.
Till now the DSS has got response from five shipyards out of which three are foreign shipyard while two are Indian Shipyard but once bitten twice shy, the DSS will now consider three major factors before placing orders.
According to Capt. Rajinder Kumar the first factor will be time taken for construction of the ship while second factor which will be taken into account is fuel consumption and third will be of course the cost.
“We have already ordered two 500 pax vessel to a Manglore based shipyard however the project is not in very good shape,” he added.
He said that Administration is also thinking of taking atleast one Mainland Ship and one Inter-island ship on lease, like MF Samsun till the new ships join the DSS fleet.
