VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) has been focusing on the safety of tourists. A Base Maintenance Unit (BMU) has been set up near Prakasam Barrage. According to the APTDC officials, a BMU team consisting of four employees will regularly inspect the engines of boats belonging to the tourism department.
The team will identify engine issues at the initial stage and carry out repair works immediately, to avoid any untoward incident. The BMU team will identify technical problems by frequently conducting awareness sessions for the boating department employees. Currently, if any engine breaks down, it is brought to Vijayawada BMU or a team goes to the spot of break down to carry out repairs.
The BMU staff with decades of experience were also trained by leading companies involved in manufacturing boat engines. Apart from that, new engines will be manufactured from spare parts of old engines belonging to the same company.APTDC boating operations in charge M Malleswara Rao said that the tourism department owns a total of 48 boats in the State. Of them, a few boats have the capacity to ferry 100 passengers.
However, due to various reasons, five to ten per cent of the boats continue to undergo repairs. In the past, if a boat’s engine broke, it would take about a week to a month to repair it. If necessary, a mechanic will be brought from Mumbai. On the other hand, the boat operations had to be stopped until the engine was repaired. Taking serious note of the matter, the department has established the unit and identified operational repairs in advance and took measures to prevent engine breakdowns.
BMU team
The team will identify engine issues at the initial stage and carry out repair works immediately, to avoid any untoward incident. The BMU team will identify technical problems by frequently conducting awareness sessions for the boating department employees