Tarun Karthick
Campbell Bay, 20 January 2023
The traders of Katchal Island are facing a lot of problems due to the non-availability of direct ships for the transportation of general cargo to the Island from Port Blair for more than a month.
M.V Bharat Seema was the last ship to call on Katchal Port on 11th December 2022, after which no other passenger ship was scheduled for the Island.
Earlier, M.V Chulgam a cargo vessel owned by the Directorate of Shipping Services was used to provide transportation of general cargo to the remote Islands of Nicobar District, but the sailing of M.V Chuglam has also not been scheduled for a long time.
Due to the Non-Availability of direct ships for the transportation of general cargo, the traders of Katchal now import general cargo through Kamorta. The cargo is first transported to Kamorta and then re-transported from Kamorta to Katchal.
This process of re-transporting the cargo from Kamorta to Katchal increases the cost of every package on an average by Rs. 250/-. The re-transportation of Cargo from Kamorta to Katchal increases the cost of the commodity at Katchal Island.
The traders also suffer a lot of losses due to lost packages and damaged goods during the re-transportation of cargo from Kamorta to Katchal.
Traders have demanded that a vessel should immediately be scheduled for transportation of general cargo directly from Port Blair to Katchal. The traders have also demanded that the Directorate of Shipping Services should schedule cargo vessels/passenger-cum-cargo vessels at regular intervals for Katchal Island so that cargo can be transported without any hassles.