Crew Training Centre of Inland Water Transport (IWT) lying inoperative

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Crew Training Centre of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) Department, Assam was set up in the year 1968 to impart deck and engine training to candidates. It is the only crew centre in the entire north-eastern region. The first batch of candidates started training in the year 1969.

The training is for six months. During the training, candidates are trained in engine repair and deck maintenance. After completion of training in deck management (Laskar) and training in engine management (Girajsar), they get certificates and can apply for jobs.

Inland waterways play a significant role in transport and communication in Assam. But since 2011, the Crew Training Centre started imparting training in fits and starts. The last batch to complete training in this centre for complete six months was in 2017. Since then, this centre has been inoperative. Two posts of demonstrator and one post of assistant training superintendent have been lying vacant in the centre for many years, said an official source.

Earlier this month, a private boat (Ma Kamala) capsized in the Brahmaputra River near Nimatighat following a head-on collision with a ferry. This accident exposed the flaws in the inland water transport system in Assam and also the glaring incompetency of the IWT staff. Ferry and boat accidents are not new in the State. Such accidents had taken place in the past in North Guwahati and Medartari in Dhubri district.

"After the ferry incident at Medartari in Dhubri district, a 3-member committee headed by the then Chief Secretary, Government of Assam, Jitesh Khosla was formed in 2015. The committee in its report had offered many suggestions, some of which pertained to the training of boat/ferry crew," said Ambikacharan Baishya, the general secretary of Sadou Assam Abhyantarin Jala Paribahan Shramik Sangha.

He added, "The committee had laid stress on the training of ferry/boat crew to avoid accidents. It had also suggested stopping private boats from plying. However, these suggestions of the committee have not been implemented by the government."

Assam has seen many boat tragedies. To prevent more such tragedies, the government needs to plug all loopholes in the inland water transport system of the State.

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