Boats on Godavari under official lens

Rajahmundry: Sailing of tourist boats on Godavari river carrying the tourists to popular tourist destination of Papikondalu either from Polavaram or from Pochavaram has been temporarily suspended for two days from November 17 to 18 in Godavari districts. In the aftermath of tragic death of 22 tourists in a boat capsize in Krishna river recently, the authorities are holding a series of meetings with the private boat operators and are insisting that all boats much carry adequate number of lifebuoys, life jackets, first aid kits, fire extinguishers, licence to the boats and drivers and several other safety norms. The authorities have directed the boat owners to display the details of the boat like its name, driver’s name, tonnage and others.

The authorities have issued directions to verify if all the boats have such safety norms and allow them to sail on the river only when they fulfil all safety criteria.
Nearly 60 private tourist boats sail on the river carrying the tourists to Papikondalu. Earlier in the day, East Godavari Joint Collector A. Mallikharjuna held a meeting with the private boat owners/operators and directed them to comply with all safety norms before setting sail on the river carrying tourists.

He asked the water resources authorities to come up with a navigation route map in the river so that the boats would sail on the route and avoid hitting sand bars or rocks on river bed. He also suggested uniform rate for all boats, fixed travel time on the river, no overload of tourists on the boats, curbs on dumping plastic waste, insurance to tourists and other measures. Meanwhile, water resources authorities say that after verification of each boat, they will permit the boats to sail on the river in two to three days.

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