Kolkata Port Trust to offer buses for Andaman passengers

Port Blair, Feb 28 (UNI) From the next sailing to Kolkata, passengers from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands would be getting an additional bus ferry facility, offered by the Kolkata Port Trust (KPT), as a goodwill gesture.

The KPT has recently decided to press into service three buses for ferrying the ship passengers from Andaman after their disembarkation at Kidderpore jetty to Howrah and Sealdah.

''The Andaman administration had been pursuing this matter since a long time, finally the KPT has agreed to offer this service to the islanders,'' Andaman Deputy Resident Commissioner (DRC) in Kolkata R Chandramohan told UNI over phone yesterday.

Thousands of passengers travel nearly four times a month to and from Kolkata from Andaman in ships having more than 1,200 passengers capacity.

The remote islands are connected with huge mainland ships from Kolkata, Vizag and Chennai, besides having regular flight services from Chennai and Kolkata.

The decision was taken in a recent meeting between the KPT and the Andaman and Nicobar administration at Kolkata.

As a joint venture, the KPT and administration were also exploring the feasibility of providing trolley service from the point of disembarkation inside the jetty to the main road at Kidderpore in order to facilitate carriage of luggage, the DRC added.

Besides, the possibility was also being explored to make transit arrangements for the ship passengers nearby Kidderpore jetty for which a suitable site was being identified, he added.

UNI SKR DPM/JT RK1145