PANAJIA
The boat continued drifting for almost one and a half hour with there being no system to rescue it. Finally as it neared the Panaji bridge it was towed towards the the Captain of Ports jetty from where passengers had to be helped out. The issue echoed in the Goa Legislative Assembly which, coincidentally was discussing grants for the River Navigation Department among other things. Legislators both ruling and opposition rued the pathetic state of the ferry services in the State. “Today s incident is testament to the state of the river navigation department,” Panaji MLA Siddharth Kuncalienkar said as he pitched that more ferries be put along the Panaji Betim route that was not only popular but would serve to reduce the traffic on the two Mandovi Bridges. “There should be a system to rescue such ferries since incidents like this are not uncommon,” Kuncalienkar said. Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte pitched for starting another ferry route from Malim to Panjim as was done during the days when the Mandovi Bridge had collapsed. “It will take the load of the Mandovi Bridges he said,” Khaunte said also pitching for a change in design of the ferries to introduce Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) ferries saying that it would save a lot of time if the larger ferries were to be introduced. In his reply, RND Minister Ramkrishna Dhavalikar said that the boat had a mechanical failure and that his ferry was towed to the jetty and people were helped out offering no further explanation for the incident.
