John Wilbert, Saurabh Singh: In yet another major setback for MV Chowra passenger vessel, one of the engines of the vessel suffered massive breakdown 14 July 2022 in the morning hours near Nancowry Island.
Earlier the ship’s engines suffered breakdown before berthing at Car Nicobar Jetty two days back but later it was reported that the engines were repaired by engineers present onboard. As per reports, this time while sailing from Car Nicobar to Nancowry this incident took place.
It is learnt that considering the safety of passengers the Captain of the ship passed information regarding this breakdown to the Directorate of Shipping Services.
Soon the MV Barren ferry vessel available in the region was diverted to MV Chowra and all 27 passengers of Campbell Bay were shifted to MV Barren Vessel and MV Chowra then sailed back for Port Blair.
Later all these 27 passengers bound for Campbell Bay were shifted to MV Sindhu passenger vessel, which reached Nancowry with passenger and cargo at 08.30 AM today.
Such accidents in the high sea with passengers onboard shows that there is something terribly wrong with the fitness of decades old passenger vessels and hence a safety audit of all old passenger vessels, which are more than 25 years old, must be carried out.
Afterall safety of passengers travelling in the high sea in adverse weather conditions must be given top priority. Meanwhile, as usual top officials of Directorate of Shipping Services were not available for a comment in this regard.
