John Wilbert & Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, April 08: The State Transport Services is all set to come up with a initiative for the tourist visiting Havelock Islands, under which any visitor can buy a ticket of Rs 50 per day and can travel anywhere in Havelock Island in any of the STS Bus.
Presently, travellers coming to Havelock Island, which is hardly 18 km in length and 8km in width, had to spend thousands of rupees to travel even for a lesser distance at Havelock. Due to lack of any alternative transportation facility, vehicle operators of Havelock allegedly take full advantage of this situation.
Tourist allege that just to drop at popular Radhanagar Beach from the Jetty, Tourist Vehicle Operators of Havelock charge Rs 700 to Rs 1000 and also they charge the same amount from the travellers to take them to their respective hotels from Havelock Jetty.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha recently, the Director, State Transport Services, Dr Navendra Kumar Singh said that to encourage tourism in these Islands this decision has been taken and initiative is going to start from Havelock Island.
“Also some control on the vehicles in the Havelock Island was necessary as it started creating pollution in the Island, tourists only prefer four wheelers for movement in the small Island but as we are going to start this initiative, large number of tourists is expected to be using our services as it is also cost- efficient,” said the Director Transport.
The Director, STS, Dr Navlendra also informed that they are now making arrangements for the ticket counter at Havelock Jetty or somewhere near to it and within coming 10 days the department will be starting the service.
Such an initiative will definitely give scope for back packers to come and explore themselves in the most popular destination of these Islands, Havelock.
