Andaman gears up for safety and security of visiting tourists

Port Blair, Nov 07 (UNI) The Andaman and Nicobar administration has beefed up safety measures for tourists following the death of a high profile tourist here recently.

The Administration in a series of meetings with village level committees and other organisations has decided to upgrade out safety measures for the tourists, official sources said.

Dhanbad's Mine Safety Director General Bhaskar Battacharya and his 21-year-old son Siddharth's death, while on a trip to Radhanagar Beach, on October 27, had sent shock waves across the island.

According to the sources, both the father and the son drowned due to lack of life saving equipments in the boat.

Earlier, the territory's tourism department was in soup for the for the plight of tourists, who were left without accommodation, food and transport, during September and October.

''We are taking all kind of precautions for the safety of the tourists,'' South Andaman Deputy Commissioner K K Singh told newmen here yesterday.

North Andaman Deputy Commissioner Vivek Pandy in a meeting here yesterday had constituted a committee to promote safe and effective eco-tourism in several villages of Middle Andaman.

Some rules like keeping life safety equipments in boats, not to carry plastic bags to tourist places, provisions of eco-friendly dustbins, regular boats timings, were recommended in the committee meeting to ensure safe and environment friendly tourism, Mr Pandy said.

The Andaman Police is also on alert, he added.

''In recent days we have registered many complaints from tourists and taken suitable actions,'' Mr Pandy said.

Lifeguards have been placed in a few important places and efforts are on to create more infrastructure for tourists.

At present, hotels and flights have already been booked to their capacity for the next two months, sources said.

In the early nineties, the islands used to get around 10,000 to 12,000 tourists per annum. By 2000 tourist flow increased about ten times.

After tsumani there was a drastic drop in the number of tourists, however, the traffic has again gained the pace.

''We expect it to the peak during Christmas. Even the number of foreign tourists is rising sharply,'' territory tourism departments PRO Rana Mathew said.

UNI SKR PP SK DS1130