Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will inaugurate nine control rooms at various tourist destinations for safe boating activity, in online mode on June 18.
In the wake of the accident in the River Godavari that resulted in capsizing of a tourist boat ‘Vasista Punnami Royal’, the government formed a panel that has submitted recommendations for safe operation of tourist boats.
Based on the recommendations, the government asked the Tourism Department to set up control rooms for safe boating operations. The nine control rooms are located at Singanapalli in West Godavari district, Gandi Pochamma in East Godavari district, Perantalapalli (West Godavari district), Pochavaram (West Godavari), Rajahmahendravaram (East Godavari), Rushikonda beach (Visakhapatnam), Nagarjuna Sagar Boating Point (Guntur), Srisailam Boating Point (Kurnool) and Berm Park in Vijayawada (Krisha district).
Each control room will have a manager from the Revenue Department who will be responsible for the management of the control room operations and signing off on the departure clearances, a liaison officer from the Water Resource Department, who will issue weather related warnings and alert all the stakeholders in emergency.
System operator
There will be a system operator from the Tourism Department who will enter the details of each vessel, including the boat driver, crew and passengers on board besides maintaining a database of the vessels operating at the control rooms, including details of the validity of licences, registration and other permissions.
An inspection staff, also from the tourism wing, will check the registration and other permissions of the vessel as per the “departure clearance checklist”, check licence, fitness and condition of the crew and availability of life saving equipment.
A policeman will supervise the security and crowd management at the control room and patrolling of the waterways on a regular basis.
The control rooms will also have lifeguards and swimmers/quick response teams from the Tourism Department, consisting of well-trained swimmers trained in life-saving techniques.
They will also explain to the tourists and passengers boarding the boat about the set of Dos and Don’ts to be followed.