Port Blair, Jan. 5: As far as the daily movement of people are concerned, the passenger traffic across the Bambooflat – Chatham sea route is by far the most busy and most frequented route in the whole of A&N Islands. According to a rough estimate, daily more than 14000 passengers including students, office goers, daily wage earners, patients, industrial workers and about a thousand vehicles comprising two wheelers, Auto rickshaw, four wheelers, cars etc. commute between Bambooflat and Chatham availing vehicle ferry and passenger ferry boats operated by Directorate of Shipping Services (DSS).
Port Blair, being the hub of all citizen centric services namely : the lone referral (GB Pant) Hospital, A&N Administration Secretariat, office of the Hon’ble LG/CS/Deputy Commissioner, Police Headquarters, Civil Courts, Directorates of various offices, Schools, Engineering/Degree Colleges, ITI, Business Establishments, Shops, Airport, Sea port and a whole lot of other public utility services, a good number of people form rural South Andaman i.e., Ferrar Gunj Tehsil area visits Port Blair every day through the sea route between Bambooflat and Chatham to avail these services.
But the ferry services operated in the route surprisingly remains insufficient, irregular and inadequate both in terms of capacity and frequency as well. Every ferry, be it day or night, rain or sun, sails jam-packed with commuters huddled in every available space. Unable to bear with the erratic ferry services, commuters harped to agitation, filed complaints and even resorted to strikes. Local newspapers had highlighted the plight of the commuters quite a few times, but nothing could see improvement in ferry services causing dissent among the commuters.
Failure of DSS to solve the crisis could be attributed to purchase of boats, which are either unfit for operation in island waters or capacity wise they are inadequate. The glaring example is two Ro-Ro type ferries (MV Afrabay and MV Karmatang) which are found tethered in Marine/Phoenix Bay jetties without plying. Further the promised induction of vehicle ferries on wet lease is not materializing. What is surprising is even after lapse of years the Ro-Ro type ferries failed to ply, no effort has been made to replace those blunders by appropriate ones. The result is commuters are facing immense hardships due to inadequate and inefficient ferry services.
Despite this, it is learnt that Administration is arranging vehicle ferries for Floating restaurant during the ITF. This is being done at the peak of worst boat services during the last fortnight. This shows the apathy and indifference towards the sufferings of the ordinary citizens.
The irony is nobody seems bothered. Commuters on an earlier occasion were promised that that DSS would station one responsible officer at each of the jetties to ensure ferries operate in time and at the time of exigencies they would respond to commuters demand and arrange appropriate ferry to clear stranded passenger’s vehicles etc. But till date, no one has been deployed to listen to the commuters.
Under such compelling circumstances, the President Humane Touch, Shri K.P. Mohammed Younus has requested the Lt. Governor to intervene into the matter and save the commuters from the harassment meted out to them at the hands of inadequate and inefficient ferry service. Humane Touch further requested for enquiries regarding the vehicles ferries purchased, which are not pressed into service due to reasons beyond our comprehension. The persons involved in such purchases causing losses to public exchequer must be brought to the book, Younus said.