57 modern vessels to replace unsafe bhutbhuties on Hooghly

Kolkata: Bengal transport minister Suvendu Adhikaari on Monday flagged off 11 newly built vessels each of which can safely carry 200 passengers and 44 vessels with 80-passenger capacity each and two 60-passenger vessels at Millennium Park Jetty on Hooghly river. These vessels will eventually replace all unsafe bhutbhutis (wooden country boat retrofitted with unspecified engines), which daily ferry thousands of passengers across the Hooghly and other rivers in the state.
The production cost of 200-passenger vessels is Rs1.35 crore, while the average cost of production of 80-passenger vessel is Rs 32 lakh and each 60-passenger vessel costs Rs 25 lakh.According to a conservative estimate, nearly 12,000 unsafe bhutbhutis ply across in the Ganges with a high risk of getting capsized.
“This is why we built some prototypes of sturdy vessels both of wood and steel. We tried to keep the cost as low as possible so that bhutbhuti owners can replace theirs with these safe vessels. These will not only ensure safety but also give good business to the operator as these vessels will last much longer than the bhutbhutis,” said an officer of Shalimar Works, a PSU under the transport department.
These newly unveiled vessels will be ferrying commuters across the Ganga in 26 routes encompassing Kolkata, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia and East Midnapore, said a transport department officer. The transport minister also flagged off eight single-bogey AC tram cars, which were indigenously developed at Nonapukur tram depot.
Transport department officers claimed that the safety of commuters have increased multifold at routes where bhutbhutis were replaced with mechanised vessels. These vessels can ferry passengers even during the ebb when water level decreases drastically.