At least sixteen tourists, including six women and two children, were killed and nine others missing as a boat capsized in Krishna river near this city in Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district on Sunday, officials said. The incident occurred at Ibrahimpatnam Ferry Ghat. There were 38 tourists on boat belonging to a private operator and coming to Pavitra Sangam at Ibrahimpatnam from Bhavani Island. Overload is suspected to be the cause of the accident. A total of 15 people were rescued with the help of locals.
AP CM Naidu has always been a big proponent of Tourism. In spite of all the efforts from the government, incidents like these hamper his efforts to make any progress in tourism.
Source told Telugu360 that this was incident that was waiting to happen given the lack of monitoring on part of the government. Even worse, a key official in the government is behind this company “River Boating”.
A high ranking official in APTDC has joined hands with the workers union president Mr. Veera Reddy and Bhavani Island ex-manager Mr.Sridhar Kolli and APTDC drivers Gedela Srinivasa Rao and Pemmadi Narasimha, to set up a company by name ” River Boating” Despite of lack of permissions from MD, APTDC, this company is conducting water sports at Punnami, set up its own ticket counter and is running operations.
For ‘River Boating’ sake, the DVM has instructed the sea plane jetty(at Punnami) which was allocated to other private players has been removed, without prior intimation and has been placed at Durga Ghat. The Durga Ghat has been provided exclusive boating rights via tender process by BITC (Bhavani Island Tourism Corporation) to another private boating company. Since, the DVM and other officials have vested interests in “River Boating”, they have been letting the River Boating along with APTDC to forcefully operate at Durga Ghat which is a complete violation.
Island dropping is a major contention between APTDC and other PPP players. While in the agreements signed it is clearly mentioned “Boating” and usage of jettys with revenue share, in practice, APTDC senior officials in coordination with his staff is completely preventing the PPP players from using the govt jetty.
