Thousands suffer as punt services stopped

Narsapuram: Thousands of people are facing hardships at Narsapuram ferry point, following the withdrawal of punts and boats in River Vasistha.The people used to cross the River Vasistha from Madhavayapalem ferry point to Sakhinetipalli in East Godavari district regularly.

Thousands of people from dawn to dusk cross the river with the help of the punts and boats. The officials every year conducts auction to run the punts and boats at the Madhavayapalem ferry point. As the auction time expired, the officials held an auction to run the punts three days ago.

Several contractors submitted their bids. However, as the lease amount was lower than last year’s amount, the officials cancelled the bids.

Last year, the lease amount received Rs 2.05 crore, whereas this year it was stood at Rs 1.87 crore only. Following this, the officials cancelled the tenders. Even the officials raised the ticket price 10 percent as against earlier price, no contractor reached the government rate of 2.25 crore.

After cancelling the bids, officials asked the old contractor to run the punts for the time being. However, from Thursday onwards the contractor rejected to run the punts.

The Madhavayapalem ferry point is key to East Godavari people to reach Narsapur Railway station to catch their trains like Nagarsole, Hyderabad, Tirupati expresses. The east Godavari people mainly from Konaseema area reach the Sakhinetipalli point and cross the river in the punts.

Likewise, the Narsapuram area people also use the punt to cross the river. As the punts were stopped, the people have been facing hardships for the last two days. The officials did not initiate any action following the stoppage of punts by the old contractor. Even the officials did not make alternative arrangements at the ferry point.

Some fishermen run country boats between Narsapuram and Sakhinetipalli during the last three days. As the boat travelling may not be safer, the officials stopped those boats.