Bridging hopes
The much-awaited bridges at Middle Strait and Humphrey Strait on the Andaman Trunk Road may soon become a reality. The government has assigned the task of construction of the bridges to National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation (NHIDCL), and residents of Andaman and Nicobar Islands are now building their hopes on NHIDCL.
It has promised to complete the construction of the two bridges by 2020. While work for a bridge at Humphrey Strait has already begun, work on the Middle Strait bridge is set to begin soon. It is hoped that soon the journey on the Andaman Trunk Road will be much easier At present all vehicles travelling on the road have to cross the two creeks of Middle Strait and Humphrey Strait on vehicle ferry vessels, which extends the journey by one to two hours.
Powerless Andaman
The power crisis on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands remains a constant source of discomfort for the Union Territory. The South Andaman region seems to be facing the brunt of this crisis after independent power producer Suryachakra Power House reduced its power production from 20 megawatts to nearly 2.5 megawatts following diesel generator set failures and other financial and technical issues.
The myopic administration has been caught completely unprepared for this situation and now every area is witnessing more than an hour of power cuts during peak hours and several other spells of short and long undeclared power cuts during the day.
LPG crisis
Andaman and Nicobar Island always face an LPG crisis, mainly because of the inability of the distributor to supply LPG cylinders regularly in all the remote Islands. As far as South Andaman is concerned, those missing LPG cylinders could earlier go to the Brookshabad depot and take home a filled cylinder, but the closure of the Brookshabad Depot for LPG distribution has created a problem for the Islanders. Now, wherever the truck carrying LPG cylinders goes, thousands of people make a beeline for it, causing a riot-like situation and forcing the police to intervene.
LG on review trip
The Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands began his second trip to North and Middle Andaman two days ago. Officially, it was said the visit was meant to review the progress of works on various directions given by the L-G during his first visit. Due to his introvert nature, the people of Andaman have little expectations from him, but the long trip to review developmental works had given new hope to the islanders. However, no clear-cut commitment or promise has been made by the L-G to the islanders, and once again, no media team was asked to accompany the LG on his trip.
Protest paralysis
A minor protest by a handful of vehicle drivers on Havelock Island a few days ago left thousands of tourists stranded on the island. Most of the tourists could be seen walking all the way up to the beach area and also up to the Jetty area. The minor strike literally paralysed tourism on Havelock Island, forcing the administration to bow down and negotiate with the protesters on the second day. One can only imagine what impression the tourists must have taken back home about Andaman Tourism.
Sanjib Kumar Roy
Our correspondent in Andaman and Nicobar Islands
laurelsforsanjib@gmail.com