As tragedies involving passenger and tourist boats continue to strike the State in regular intervals, safety of boat passengers still takes a back seat along the State’s water routes with the successive governments turning a blind eye towards recommendations put forth by the expert committees in this regard.
For instance, most of the recommendations by a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) led by K. Narayana Kurup, which had probed the Kumarakom boat accident of July 2002, are gathering dust.
The report submitted about eight months after the accident, had found that poor condition of the boat, overloading and negligent conduct of the crew as the factors causing the accident.
Among the key recommendation put forth by the CoI included the appointment of a Safety Commissioner for Water Transport in the rank of Principal Secretary. “At present, boat accident with causalities are frequently reported and are soon forgotten. The setting up of the Safety Commissionerate will change all that since there will be sustained efforts and follow up actions by the official to improve safety in the Water Transport sector,” noted the CoI, in its report.
It further stipulated the Safety Commissioner to have an independent status and adequate protection to the office for ensuring its functioning without “fear or favour”.
“That appointment, however, never happened. And it’s not just that recommendation alone but several other shortcomings regarding passenger safety as identified the CoI went unaddressed,” says Mr. Kurup.
The tragic scenes of the accident and the rescue operation that followed are still fresh in the collective memory of the backwater landscape here.
Shaji Arangu, a social activist in Muhamma, personally knew several of the passengers who travelled on the boat on that fateful day and has been instrumental in organising anniversary of the boat tragedy at Muhamma every year to commemorate those who lost their lives in the accident.
“The safety recommendation by the CoI appears to have gone like a line drawn on water. The route, which involves a boat ride of around 35 to 40 minutes, still lacks some of the primary navigation facilities, including an efficient signal light at Kumarakom. The spare boat, stationed at Muhamma, cannot be used for rescue mission in times of inclement weather conditions,” he pointed out.
Sources in the State Water Transport Department, meanwhile, also held that boat cruise still witnessed a huge rush during the peak traffic hours and several of the passengers were disinclined to wear the life jackets. “The huge passenger demand is also affecting periodical maintenance of the vessels operating the sector,” they pointed out.
The Kumarakom boat tragedy, which took place on July 27, 2002, claimed 29 lives, including that of 15 women and a nine-month-old infant. An overloaded passenger boat operated by the SWTD which set off from Muhamma to Kumarakom in the morning capsized in the Vembanad lake. Several passengers aboard were on their way to attend a Public Service Commission examination.
