Surat: Kumar Doshi, a Bhavnagar businessman, wanted to reach Surat as early as possible due to a medical emergency in Surat. So, he preferred to go via the newly launched Ghogha-Hazira Ro-Pax service as he would reach within four hours.
On Tuesday, he reached at 10:30 am to catch the 12 O’ clock scheduled ferry service from Ghogha to Hazira.
Billed as a game changer in reducing the distance from 12 hours to just four hours via this service, two days after it’s inauguration, the ferry service ran into delays, testing the patience of passengers at Ghogha who had to wait for nearly four hours only to know that the trip had been cancelled.
“The ship arrived at 2 pm and passengers started boarding it. Even after two hours the ship did not start and I was anxious as I had an emergency. I had to leave for Surat by road. This was a horrible experience,” said Doshi.
The vessel had arrived at the port at around 2 pm. Passengers were seen arguing with the employees at the ticket counter.
“We have to travel up to Pune. There is no sight of the ship. We can’t keep waiting endlessly. Can we cancel the ticket?,” a woman was seen inquiring at the ticket window.
Travellers complained that though they had purchased online tickets and arrived on time, there was no update via announcement about the delay.
“We reached the Gogha Ro-Pax terminal at around 11 am to board the ferry at 12pm. Despite our repeated enquiries, the officers were not responding to our queries about the long delay in departure. There was no water for the passengers sitting in the terminal building for hours. This was a nightmarish experience,” said Beena Rao, a social activist from Surat.
Officials of Indigo Seaways Private Limited that manages and operates Ro-Pax ferry service said there was a leakage from the CNG tank of a car brought from Hazira to Gogha.
Since there was a serious threat to the vessel and passengers on-board, the first priority was to remove the car safely to the ground. It took about an hour for the ground staff to remove the car from the vessel.
“There was a dual problem encountered when the vessel reached Gogha. First was the CNG leakage in the car and the second was the breakdown of the diesel generator (DG) set of the vessel. There was heavy sludge in the generator set, which required three to four hours of cleaning. Without a generator we could not operate the vessel and the radar. The work is still going on to fix the breakdown of the generator set at the vessel,” said Chetan Contractor, chairman and managing director of Indigo Seaways.