Suvendu to unveil new passenger, RoRo vessels

Kolkata: State Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari will inaugurate 15 vessels and RoRo vessels that will operate on river Hooghly, on Tuesday.

There will be 11 wooden and four steel vessels. Each of the vessels will be having the capacity of carrying 100 passengers at a time. The step has been taken to ensure safe and secure journey of people across river Hooghly.

Adhikari will also allot 16 steel boats. Out of the 16 steel boats, six will have the

capacity of carrying 40 passengers at a time, six with the capacity of 60 passengers and four with the capacity of 80 passengers.

The vessels will be introduced by replacing the existing semi-mechanised motorised vessels. All such semi-mechanised motorised vessels will be gradually replaced with the properly designed safe vessels.

At the same time, RoRo vessels that will have the capacity to carry four trucks, four cars and four motorbikes at a time, will also be introduced.

Adhikari will also hand over "Certificate of Competency" to boatmen who have been trained by the state Transport department to operate the boats.

The boatmen received training from experts and they picked up the lessons on how to operate the vessels safely.

"With the series of steps taken by the state Transport department, incidents of boat capsizing can be averted," said a senior state government official.

It may be mentioned that following a direction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Transport department has taken up the major task to ensure safe and secure journey in inland waterways.

Besides introducing properly designed vessels, steps were also taken to improve the condition of the jetties. The jetties have been developed following a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Steps have also been taken to check overloading in vessels.