Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, May 31: As many as 1200 stranded Islanders at various cities in South India registered themselves for coming to Port Blair but surprisingly only 87 of them, traveled in the ship MV Nicobar sailed from Chennai on 28th May 2020.
People registered themselves through mobile number circulated by the Andaman Nicobar Administration in the recent past.
As per reports, the DSS unit of Chennai had called all 1200 passengers for confirmation on whether they will be traveling to Port Blair on the ship scheduled on 28th May 2020.
“Out of 1200, around 386 people confirmed us to travel following which we have also sent them the confirmation message but on the date of sailing, only 87 passengers reached the airport,” said a senior officer of DSS at Chennai on the condition of anonymity.
When Andaman Sheekha questioned the senior officer that how about the other passengers who dropped idea of traveling in the ship, he said that they have either already landed at Port Blair or have booked their flight tickets.
Meanwhile, according to the President, Island Protection Forum, Mr. MT Mustafa lack of proper publicity by Directorate of Shipping Services of the list in the administration’s website or local newspaper media, was the reason behind this lack of clarity among the applicants.
“I also wrote a letter on 12th May 2020 to the Secretary Shipping seeking him to publish the list, as many applicants didn’t receive the confirmation message, due to network of other reasons,” said Mr. Mustafa.
Andaman Sheekha learned that even the ship MV Nancowry that sailed from Port Blair to Chennai on 26th May 2020 reached Chennai with only 161 passengers today afternoon while the registrations were more.
However, the support provided to the passengers who boarded and disembarked at Chennai was highly appreciated by the passengers.
The passengers who left Port Blair on 28th May 2020 were provided with lunch, water, also the passengers who reached today at Chennai were given food and water, busses were stationed for all the locations where the passengers were supposed to travel.
