The state Transport department has decided to engage two trained men in each of the 279 jetties across the state which are to be upgraded soon.
The step to upgrade the jetties was taken following an instruction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after a temporary jetty at Telenipara in Hooghly collapsed killing 16 people while three went missing.
Experts have framed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which must be followed on all the jetties and accordingly, the identified 279 will be upgraded.
There will be drop gates on the jetties to restrict excessive loading of passengers on each vessel. At the same time, there will be life jackets that passengers have to put on to ferry across the river on vessels and arrangements will be made for proper illumination on board.
"In a bid to ensure that the SOP is followed, it has been decided that two trained men will be engaged in each of the jetties. Agencies will be engaged to deploy those trained men," said Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday, adding that out of these jetties, 28 are in Hooghly, 60 in North 24 Parganas, 16 in Howrah, 12 in South 24 Parganas and 11 of the West Bengal Transport Corporation.
He also informed the Assembly on Wednesday that there will be an investment of around Rs 10 lakh for the upgradation of each of the jetties and Rs 5 lakh has already been released.
The trained personnel would be tasked to keep a tab on whether the drop gates are functioning properly and to ensure that passengers beyond the capacity of the jetties do not board them at a time. The accident at Telenipara would not have taken place if that many people had not boarded the jetty, which was already in a dilapidated condition.
In case they find that an excessive number of passengers have boarded the jetty or vessel by force, despite having been warned repeatedly, they would be instructed to contact the local police seeking their help to bring the situation under control.
They will also have to ensure that all passengers put on safety jackets before getting onto a vessel. They also have to inform the concerned authorities in case the area is not properly illuminated or if there is lack of infrastructure.
The state Transport department has taken the initiative to upgrade some of the 279 jetties to model ones. There will be an investment of around Rs 3.5 crore to build each of the model jetties. There are already 18 model jetties in the state built in the last financial year.