DJ Venkatesh
Port Blair, April 18: Considered the lifeline of this geographically distributed island territory, the Shipping Services continues to remain in complete disarray causing all sorts of discomfort to commuters. Having failed to make discernible progress in the recent years particularly increasing the operational capacity of the DSS fleet, the Directorate of Shipping Services that provides connectivity to 29 of the 36 inhabited islands, has considerably reduced the number of sailings to various islanders drawing severe criticism from remote islanders.
According to reports, the Shipping Department has 17 Speed Boats of which only five are operational currently. MV Bambooka, MV Kamorta, MV North Passage, MV Jolly buoy and MV Rani Changa transport passengers and materials from Port Blair to Diglipur, Mayabunder, Havelock, Neil, Long Island, Hut Bay, Rangat etc. MV Chowra and MV Campbell Bay operate in the Port Blair-Hut Bay and other sectors in the southern group.
MV Campbell Bay was recently pressed to mainland services via Nancowry and Campbell Bay. Another vessel, MV Teal damaged during tsunami was dry docked recently and a minor sang in the vessel leads to cancellation of the sailings in the last minute putting passengers in the lurch.
Poor functioning of the Dry Dock facilities here has also added to the woes of the ship commuters. MV Onge and MV Long Island have been in Dry Dock for more than one year. The cold storages of M V Campbell Bay went defunct recently after which the Deep Freezers of MV Onge and MV Ramanujam were removed and installed in MV Campbell Bay.
“With the advent to technology, shipping services were supposed to improve in these islands. On the contrary, the services have deteriorated in the recent years. During 2005, there were four ship trips in a week to Diglipur. Over the years, the trips have been reduced to three, then two and currently only one vessel sails to Diglipur in a week.
Frequent technical snags in the DSS vessels are the major reason for the poor services offered to commuters. It’s an irony that another island territory, Lakshadweep went surplus with an induction of a vessel MV Coral and the Directorate of Shipping Services here jumped to seize the opportunity to commission a 40 year old vessel of Lakshwadweep MV Bharat Seema in its fleet. This shows how the Lakshwadweep administration professionally manages its shipping fleet. The local administration should send a team from the Shipping Department to Lakshadweep to study their system instead of sending Municipal Councillors to Spain.”
“The Lt Governor during the 2nd meeting of National Sagarmala Apex Committee at New Delhi requested the committee for a special perspective plan to be developed for identifying and evaluating the port infrastructural projects and thanked the Shipping Ministry for finalizing the acquisition of badly needed ships for the islands. But newer acquisitions will be of no use if the fleet is not managed properly. As the Shipping Department it will take three to four years for arrival of new ships. It will spell disaster for the lifeline of these islands if the existing system collapses before the new acquisition of vessel,” said some local residents.
