Sri Vijaya Puram | August 11, 2026

A passenger's allegation that he was denied boarding at Neil Jetty despite reaching the terminal shortly after the scheduled departure time and citing an emergency has raised questions about the flexibility of passenger-handling procedures and the quality of inter-island shipping services in the Islands.

According to Abhibhushan Ghosh, he reached Neil Jetty at approximately 1:02 PM on a day when his brother was scheduled to travel to Havelock on the 1 PM sailing because of an emergency situation.

Ghosh said that although the scheduled departure time had passed by approximately two minutes, the vessel had apparently not yet completely departed from the jetty. According to his account, the boarding stairs had been removed but the vessel's rope had not yet been lifted.

He alleges that he requested the ship's personnel to allow his brother to board, citing the emergency circumstances. Ghosh further claims that the boarding point was close to the jetty and that the passenger could potentially have been accommodated without significantly delaying the vessel.

According to Ghosh, the Captain, Second Officer and other vessel personnel refused to allow boarding. He also claims that police and other personnel present at the jetty repeatedly requested the ship's staff to permit the passenger to board, but the request was not accepted.

These claims have not yet been independently verified by Dweep Tulika.

The larger question is how are emergency cases handled?

The incident raises a broader question about whether existing passenger-handling procedures provide any mechanism for dealing with genuine emergencies when a passenger reaches a vessel immediately after the scheduled boarding or departure time but the vessel remains physically at the jetty.

Safety and operational requirements remain fundamental to vessel departures, and the decision of the master and crew may be governed by operational, security and passenger-manifest considerations.

At the same time, the absence of publicly established information about the precise cut-off procedure makes it difficult to determine whether an exception could legally or operationally have been made in the particular case.

Dweep Tulika has received other shipping complaints

The Neil Jetty complaint is not the only concern that has come to Dweep Tulika.

The newspaper has been examining complaints concerning inter-island passenger shipping, including a separate complaint involving MV Sentinel, in which a member of the Dweep Tulika team and their family allegedly were unable to board the vessel while attempting to travel to Diglipur to visit ill parents.

Dweep Tulika has also received complaints alleging:

  • ticket resale or brokering at prices higher than the prescribed fare;
  • discrepancies between actual ticket availability and availability displayed through online booking;
  • non-functional or poorly maintained bathrooms;
  • air-conditioning problems;
  • poor vessel conditions;
  • and insufficient availability of vessels for passenger demand.

These are complaints received by Dweep Tulika and are not being presented as established findings.

The Directorate of Shipping Services operates an e-ticketing system for passenger bookings, while STARS counters also issue tickets. Official sailing information has also documented MV Sentinel's deployment on inter-island routes.

Questions requiring answers

Taken together, the complaints raise several questions that warrant responses from the Directorate of Shipping Services and other concerned authorities:

What is the official boarding cut-off time for passengers?

Is there a documented emergency exception procedure?

Are CCTV recordings maintained at passenger jetties and retained long enough to investigate complaints?

How are passenger manifests closed before departure?

How are complaints regarding unauthorised ticket resale investigated?

What mechanism exists for reporting discrepancies between online ticket availability and actual availability?

How frequently are passenger vessels inspected for passenger amenities and maintenance deficiencies?

What is the present vessel capacity against passenger demand on major inter-island routes?

These questions are particularly relevant in an island territory where sea transport is not merely a convenience but an essential link between communities.

A service that Islanders depend on

Official and government planning material has previously recognised a demand-supply gap in inter-island vessel services, highlighting the importance of adequate vessel capacity.

For Islanders travelling for medical treatment, education, employment, family emergencies and other essential purposes, a missed sailing can have consequences far beyond inconvenience.

The question arising from the Neil Jetty complaint is therefore not simply whether a passenger who arrived two minutes after scheduled departure should have been allowed aboard.

It is also whether clear, transparent and consistently applied procedures exist for handling exceptional circumstances and whether passengers have an effective mechanism to challenge decisions when they believe those procedures have not been fairly applied.

Dweep Tulika will seek responses from the Directorate of Shipping Services, the concerned vessel operator/master and other relevant authorities regarding the Neil Jetty incident and the wider complaints received by the newspaper.

Independent verification could not be established at the time of publication for the allegations made by the complainant or for the broader passenger-service complaints. The concerned authorities' responses will be incorporated as and when received.