Roni Antony & Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, Dec 18: The Corbyn’s Cove beach, which is one of the most visited beaches of Andamans, today has became a symbol of falling standard of Andaman Tourism.
The floating jetty at Corbyn’s Cove beach, Port Blair is not in use since a long time due to the dilapidated condition and it seems that there is no one to take responsibility of repairing it again.
As per reports, due to the dilapidated condition of the floating jetty the visitors are not allowed to go till the extreme end of the jetty and a red flag has been put at the starting of the jetty as a caveat to visitors.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr Jyoti Rajan, the water sports controller of the Corbyn’s Cove beach said that the Jetty was constructed around 02 years back and was also repaired only twice by the Andaman Lakshdweep Harbor Works with the support of the Tourism Department but since then there is no check on the jetty by any department and due to no maintenance the jetty has now become unusable.
“As the jetty is currently abandoned therefore visiting tourists now have to go into the water to sit on a Jet Ski or any other boats, which look unprofessional from the part of Andaman Tourism,” said Mr Jyoti Rajan.
Many visitors while talking to Andaman Sheekha has also shown their disappointment as they were unable to go till the extreme end of the Floating Jetty.
The dilapidated condition of the Jetty has also added an additional burden upon the TSET team as two of the staffs are especially deputed there from morning till evening 06.00 PM to check that no visitors enter the jetty.
“Anyhow, we keep a check till 06:00 PM but what if after 06:00 PM any visitor enters the jetty and falls in the sea, who will take the responsibility? Questioned the water sports Controller of the beach, Mr Jyoti Rajan.
This year stake holders of Andaman Tourism are informing that there is a sharp drop in the number of tourist arrival and authorities are busy in finding the cause. This kind of mismanagement are perhaps the main reasons behind such fall in tourist arrival as tourists who are going back with wrong impression about Andaman will never suggests others to visit Andaman.
Andaman Sheekha tried to contact officials of Tourism Department to get a quote in this regard but no officials were available for a comment. We will still put efforts to get an official comment in this regard.
Andaman Sheekha is confident that the present Director of Tourism Department, who seems to be very active and open to discussions as well as suggestions, will certainly solve this problem in no time as the matter has now been highlighted by media.
