Soon, 5 steel vessels to ferry passengers across Hooghly

The state Transport department is going to introduce five robust steel vessels within a couple of weeks to transport people safely across river Hooghly.

The step has been taken up as a part of River Safety campaign that was initiated following the direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after an incident at Telenipara in Hooghly where 13 people were killed when a dilapidated jetty had collapsed during high tide.

According to an official of the state Transport department, the main idea behind introducing such vessels is to make people less dependent on semi-mechanised boats which ferry passengers without any safety measures.

Each of the five vessels has the capacity to carry 250 people at a time. The construction of the vessels is such that it can withstand rough weather. West Bengal Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation has built the vessels at a cost of around Rs 1.60 crore and they will be handing it over to West Bengal Transport Corporation to ferry thousands of people across the river.

Sources in the Transport department said there is a plan to introduce another set of 24 vessels to ferry passengers safely. Twelve out of 24 will be steel vessels while the remaining 12 will be wooden ones. Each of the 5, which will be introduced in the next couple of weeks, have the capacity of carrying 250 passengers at a time. But, each of the next 24 will have the capacity of carrying 100 passengers at a time and the cost of building them will also be lesser. These remaining 24 will be introduced in phases before November.

At the same time the state government has introduced Jalodhara scheme to provide Rs 1 lakh financial assistance to semi-mechanised boat owners to convert them into mechnised ones to ensure safety of passengers. Moreover steps to create awareness about river safety have also been taken up.