Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Mar 05: The Directorate of Shipping Services, Andaman & Nicobar Administration has recommended the Shipping Corporation of India to decommission the 43 year old passenger vessel MV Akbar.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, the Director of Shipping services, Capt (IN) Rajinder Kumar said that the Directorate has already recommended the SCI to decommission the old ship due to issues with the fitness of the ship. He also said that its nearly 6-7 months since the above said ship is at dry-dock and its getting very difficult to repair the ship as the old vintage ship is facing regular machinery breakdowns and therefore leading to long and frequent non-operational times, spares for the major and auxiliary machineries are difficult to find in the market and the machineries have become obsolete.
“But for decommissioning a ship we have to look into two sides. We need a replacement and for that the administration and SCI is trying to identify suitable ships for chartering as an interim measure,” Capt (IN) Rajinder added.
MV Akbar joined the fleet of Andaman and Nicobar’s Shipping Services during the period of Lt. Governor, Vakkam Purushotaman. Before that the Indian relief ship was used to ferry pilgrims between Iraq and Dubai.
