Suvendu inspects jetties to oversee renovation works

Kolkata: In a bid to ensure safe and secure journey of people while crossing river Hooghly, the state Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari visited different ferry ghats along the river to check whether the work of renovating the same is being carried out following the set standard operating procedures (SOP).

The minister was accompanied by senior officials of the department along with the Additional Chief Secretary of the department Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

Adhikari started the inspection from Manirampur Ghat near Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas and headed downstream to carry out the inspection.

Adhikari said: "All necessary steps have been taken to ensure safety and security of passengers. We will not allow incidents like Telinipara happen again."

It may be mentioned that the state Transport department has taken step to renovate the ferry ghats so that no more accidents take place. Some people were killed when a temporary jetty had collapsed at Telenipara near Bhadreswar in Hooghly a few months ago. Subsequently, the state government had taken all necessary measures for reconstruction of the jetties.

It was directed to renovate the jetties following a set SOP so that no untoward incident take place in future and at the same time, it will also ensure that there the jetties will not get overloaded with passengers that increases the chances of accident.

It may be mentioned that thousands of people use the service to go across the river everyday at different points along river Hooghly.

The state government had also identified that operation of semi-mechanised boats to ferry passengers across the river as another menace and decided to replace those with properly mechanised vessels. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also introduced a project called "Jalodhara" to help owners of such semi-mechanised boats to replace those with mechanised ones.

The minister on Friday visited the ferry ghats to inspect that whether the SOPs are being followed to ensure safety of passengers. He has also stressed upon the use of life jackets for passengers going across river Hooghly in vessels.