VISAKHAPATNAM: Almost three weeks have gone by since boating services of government and private companies in Visakhapatnam were stopped in the wake of boat capsize incident in River Godavari.
Though Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) has decided to conduct fitness checks of all the boat services, officials are yet to visit Visakhapatnam for inspections, give certificates and resume boating services.
The closure of boating services has not only hit the tourism revenue hard, but has also effected the earnings of private firms at Fishing Harbour and Rushikonda. These companies normally make lucrative business, especially during the festive season.
Andhra Pradesh Tourism Department runs speedboats, while a private company also runs a speedboat and kayaking service at Rushikonda.
A few weeks after the boat capsize incident, Kakinada Port officials who issued the licenses to the boats and kayaks said they would visit Vizag shortly, but so far there has been no development.
Meanwhile, some officials did visit Rushikonda and upon checking the licenses, found five kayaks and two speedboats are permitted to run till 2020.
Thousands of tourists from various States visit the city during Dasara vacation, the beginning of the peak festive season. The APTDC, which is running boating services in Fishing Harbour and Rushikonda, makes a profit of around Rs 70,000 daily. Now, these services have been temporarily shut down.
Many tourists who come to Vizag to experience kayaking in the sea are disappointed as the services have been closed temporarily. “As boating and kayaking services have been stopped temporarily, this has hit our profit. We don’t know when the boating and kayaking services will resume,” Balaram Naidu of Livein Adventures, a private company at Rushikonda, said.
“We were given to understand that after the boat capsize incident is over, the team would visit Vizag. All the tourism boats are run by expert drivers and they have licenses,” APTDC Divisional Manager Prasada Reddy told TNIE.