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– K.K. Mustafah

A fibre-glass boat constructed by KSINC for the State Water Transport Department.

V. Sajeev Kumar

Kochi, Feb. 15 All the legal hurdles connected with the issuance of fitness certificate for fibre glass passenger boats constructed by Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation for the State Water Transport Department are finally over and the boats are getting ready for a formal handover with the Chief Minister distributing the key of 10 boats to the State Transport Minister here on Monday.

The 75-capacity passenger boats built at a cost of Rs 3.75 crore was constructed strictly under IRS class.

However, the boats got entangled in certain legal issues and had to wait for more than two years to sort out the impasse in obtaining the fitness certificate, which was a perquisite for acceptance of the boats by SWTD. Senior officials in the KSINC said that the issue was resolved by issuing an extraordinary gazette notification, amending the Travancore–Cochin Public Canals and Backwaters Navigation Rules – 1092 to include FRP boats with in the purview of the Canal Rules. All these boats have now been issued fitness certificates by Chief Inspector of Boats, which is in addition to the Class certificate of IRS and the License issued by Cochin Port Trust.

The hull of these FRP boats are divided into 8 bulk heads and any leak occurring in any of these compartment will not affect other compartments and the crew can easily bail out the water accumulated in any of this chamber using the bilge pumps fitted in the boats.

It is an added advantage for FRP boats as it will prevent sinking of boat under any circumstances. Besides eco friendly, the FRP boats will have low maintenance cost compared to wooden or steel boats, the officials added.

KSINC, according to officials, is now gearing up to new vistas by concentrating more in the field of building and maintenance of marine crafts.

The construction of two numbers Jhankars for the State Government is nearing completion, besides the two 150 passenger capacity steel boats for Poompuhar Shipping Corporation, Chennai and the Fisheries Research vessel for Central Institute of Fisheries technology.

KSINC is also in the field of coastal movement of cargoes by transporting 8 lakhs tonnes of various raw materials every year.

As part of the augmentation of capacity, the company is planning to construct a new 650 tonne capacity barge which will subsidized by Centre under the Inland Water vessels scheme.

The company is also planning to undertake container transportation using the ro-ro concept soon, the officials said.

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