Water transport, the lifeline of devastated Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has been restored with most of the jetties being put into operation to handle relief cargo and passenger vessels.
Except Haddow No 3, which handled both passenger and cargo ships, and the fisheries jetty, all other jetties in Port Blair are now operational, Chief Port Administrator N Dhileswar Rao told PTI.
Sitting in his office at Phoenix Bay, which had been damaged badly by the tsunamis, Rao said that the total damage incurred by the port management runs into about Rs 700 crore.
"Now our priority is to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities and vegetables, 97% of which come from the mainland by ship. So far, there has been no problem on that front," he said.
The jetties, which handled oil and gas, had also been restored.
The jetties and port in the worst hit Southern Island, however, are yet to be fully restored, he said adding that the jetty at Car Nicobar was partly operational.
The jetties and port at Campbell Bay and Katchal Island had developed cracks while the approach jetty at Katchal is damaged.
Stating that no port management staff suffered any casualty and no vessel was damaged, he said it was mainly because 'we got some time after the earthquake to steer those vessels into the sea'.
A great tragedy could have occurred if M V Akbar, the biggest passenger ship in the country, which was to set sail from Haddow No 2 berth at 7am on December 26, had hit the jetty.
The ship, which has the capacity to carry 1,560 passengers, came precariously close to the jetty but was immediately steered into the sea by cutting the rope anchoring it when tsunamis hit the island.
Capt D L Bedi, the pilot of M V Akbar, said he got an SOS from the ship at 6:45am when he was approaching the haddow. "I do not know what was happening. I told them to cut off the rope," he said.
Had the ship come hit the jetty, it would have caused widespread damage and many more lives could have been lost. The ship could also have been sunk, Rao said.
Most of the records at the port management office in Port Blair as well as ship repair facilities and foreshore structures were extensively damaged in the devastation. The devastation was particularly severe in the southern group of islands.
On Friday, the port handled 14 administration ships, three naval ships, one coast guard ship and one private ship.
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