Inefficient vehicle ferry service between Bambooflat - Chatham; Has the sector hit the road block ? Take a look.

Port Blair, the capital city is 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, Seaport and a whole lot of other public utility services. To avail of these services, a good number of peoples from rural South Andaman i.e., Ferrar Ganj Tehsil, the second most populous tehsil in ANI, visits Port Blair every day through the sea route availing vehicle ferry service between Bambooflat and Chatham.

According to a rough estimate approximately 14000 passengers including students, office goers, daily wage earners, patients, industrial workers and about a thousand vehicles comprising 2 wheelers, Auto rickshaw, 4 wheelers, cars etc depend on vehicle ferry and or passenger ferry boats operated by Directorate of Shipping Services (DSS) while commuting between Bambooflat and Chatham.

With the increase in population, passenger as well as vehicular traffic, has increased manifold in the route. 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 jampacked with commuters huddled in every available space. Nobody seems concerned about the safety or convenience of commuters. On the other hand for a commuter the urge to cross over to the other side takes precedence over everything else. Since failure to board the available ferry, however risky it may be, would mean a long wait. It is this time factor and the associated uncertainty which motivates the parents especially those with children appearing for board exams (class X/XII) to migrate to Port Blair so that their child’s precious time is not wasted in waiting for ferry boats.

Plight of those patients referred to GB Pant Hospital from Bambooflat, Wimberly Gunj and Ferrar Gunj areas for specialized treatment are even worse. Recently a woman developed complications while delivering a baby. She was referred to GB Pant hospital but owning to delay at various points, she died leaving her husband and the child shell shocked.

Unable to bear with the erratic ferry services, commuters harped to agitation, filed complaints and even resorted to strikes, but nothing could see improvement in ferry services. Only change seen is the police bandobast thrown at both the jetties which achieved an uneasy calm, but dissent is brewing large and the reasons are valid.

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 are the two Ro-Ro type ferries (MV Afrabay and MV Karmatang) which failed to ply despite sustained effort. What is surprising is after lapse of years the Ro-Ro type ferries failed to ply, no effort seems to have been taken to replace those blunders by appropriate ones. The result is commuters are facing immense hardships due to non availability of vehicle ferry, but those two blunders are still kept tethered all the time in marine jetty.

Further deployment of additional ferries in between scheduled ones during peak hours to ease congestion could not be of much help since the existing jetty at Bambooflat and Chatham with single ramp infrastructure can't support berthing of more than one vehicle ferry at a time. But does it mean the sector has met a road block? The answer is obviously no.

It having little idea of the area will agree, there is sufficient scope for improvement in the ferry services by way of creation of additional infrastructure (read vehicle ferry ramps) at both the jetties as a short time measure. This would increase the capacity of the jetties at both the ends facilitating berthing of multiple ferries simultaneously. This would add meaning and substance to the deployment of additional ferries, which presently translates to a meaningless effort with single ramp jetties.

The space adjacent to the passenger hall at Bambooflat jetty (area indicated by rectangle in the figure) could be utilized for construction of a second vehicle ferry ramp for berthing of additional ferries. The said space is presently not utilised for anything proper but is guarded by walls causing hindrance and obstructing free flow of traffic in the area.

Similarly at Chatham another vehicle ferry ramp cum jetty could be constructed near the existing jetty or at the spot where there used to be a wooden jetty used for berthing of forest department boats and logging rafts etc (the area indicated by oval in the figure). The remains of the earlier jetty is still visible in the form of rock structure is best suited for another ramp since this side is protected, effect of wind and waves will have a negligible effect on the berthing of boats.

The gravity of the problem could be understood in the light of the fact that as per 2011 census Ferrar Gunj Tehsil with a population of about 54000 is second most populated after Port Blair Tehsil (165000). The erratic ferry service affects a quarter of the population of South Andaman directly. If the population of Port Blair tehsil is taken into consideration, the issue has a bearing on almost 90% of the population of South Andaman.

Ironically the islander’s long pending demand for improvement of ferry service is yet to be given the consideration it deserves, whereas exchequers money is being spent generously in subsidizing sea plane rides. Ideally tourists should contribute towards states economy; contrary to this, huge subsidies are given to tourists for sea plane joy rides at the cost of draining the exchequer. The common islanders on the other hand are facing worst kind of hardship, day in day out in their quest for commuting for bonafide reasons. What a pity!



This post was carried in the Port Blair edition of Echo of India dated : 10/10/2011
and in the web edition of Andaman Sheekha dated 15/10/2011

Comments

ABHAY KUMAAR said…
Some how the readers form Delhi shd be persuded to follw this blog so that the concern people will come to know abt the sufferings of these islanders.
March 13, 2012 at 9:38 AM
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