Port Blair, Jan 11: The newly inducted passenger-cum-Cargo vessel Sindhu of the Directorate of Shipping Services with technical and operational constrains was ineffective in providing passenger services post-delivery. The vessel Sindhu had to abandon her maiden voyage to Hut Bay on 25th August 2021 and returned to Port. In order to address the shortcomings which were technical in nature and to improve the operational ability of the vessel, the Directorate of Shipping Services took up strongly with the builder of the vessel M/s Cochin Shipyard Ltd and the Technical Consultant M/s Shipping Corporation of India Ltd. Accordingly the team consisting of experts of  Cochin Shipyard Limited, Service Engineers of Kawasaki and Nabtesco and Senior Officer of SCI Ltd. alongwith the officials of Directorate of Shipping Services took up the investigation to find out the cause of such difficulties in operating the vessel.

Technical deficiencies were attended by the respective experts and the vessel undertook long sea trial to different ports in Southern Group of Islands. During the voyage the expert team examined various constrains on the vessel such as Bow Thruster performance, Azimuth Thruster performance, steering at slow speed, visibility from control position in wheel house, steering of vessel in 25 Knots stern wind condition etc. The expert team made certain suggestion on the above constrains to improve the operational efficiencies. 

Complying to the suggestion of the experts, the vessel started undertaking voyages with passengers and cargo and the performance of the vessel is now found to be meeting the desired standard. With the continued efforts put by the Directorate of Shipping Services, the vessel Sindhu has so far transported 5492 Passengers and around 300 MT plus 62 Cbm of Cargo to different port in Southern Group of Islands.

The officers and Crew on board Sindhu are putting their best efforts to maintain the safe operational availability of Sindhu and provide better services to the Islanders which is the prime motto of the Directorate of Shipping Services. The vessel Sindhu is therefore available for efficient operation for the movement of Cargo and Passengers.