VietNamNet Bridge – The decision to keep
stricter control over the ships serving travelers at Ha Long Bay
has made ships’ owners suffer: they have been prohibited to leave stations.

16 ships prohibited to leave
stations

The two
shipwreck cases which occurred within three months have made tourists hesitant
to come to Ha Long Bay. Meanwhile, the ones who come to Ha Long Bay these days do
not register the tours of spending nights on ships, the service which was
considered the most attractive service until the troubles occurred.

Especially
after the latest accident, which occurred with Hai Long Ship, the Ha Long
City’s authorities have set up new regulations to control tourism ships at Ha
Long Bay more strictly.

The Hai
Long shipwreck has implicated 17 other ships. While 16 ships are not allowed to
operate; one ship has got permission to resume operation. The problem is that
Hai Long is one of the 18 ships which have been registered recently. After Hai
Long ship got wrecked, all the other ships which were registered at the same
time, were asked not to leave the station.

The
decision by the local authorities has caused big difficulties to the owners of
the ships. Some enterprises have more than one ship listed among the 18 newly
registered ships. Huong Hai Company, for example, has five ships, while the Ha
Long Tourism Development Company has two, and Minh Quang Tourism Firm has two.

As ships
are not allowed to serve travelers, they are losing big money. Bui Duc Long,
Deputy Director of Huong Hai Company, said that with five ships staying at the
station every day, the company is losing 80 million dong.

“We
understand that local authorities need to be cautious after the accident, but
they should be more flexible. They should allow the ships which can meet the
requirements, to resume operation,” he said.

Prior to
that, after Truong Hai ship got wrecked, which killed 12 people, on March 15,
the Quang Ninh provincial authorities released the Decision No 716, stipulating
the regulations on the operation of the ships at Ha Long Bay. New requirements
on the safety, technical conditions and qualifications of the crew have been
set up. However, many regulations have not been applauded by ship owners.

Doan Van
Dung, Director of Dong Duong (Indochina) Yacht
Company, said that he never saw any regulation on the age of ships before.
Ships’ owners simply consider the situation of the ships and upgrade necessary
items to meet the requirements set by the registration agency.

Under the
Decision No 716, as for third class ships: the ships must not be older than
eight years for wooden ship cover, and they must be older than 11 years for the
ships with steel made covers. As for second class ships: the maximum life
expectancy would be 7 years and 10 years for wooden and steel-made cover ships,
respectively; and as for first class ships, the figures would be six years and
eight years.

Ship owners
have pointed out that with the new regulation, they would rather spend less
money to build the ships good enough for a certain time, rather than spending
big money to build high quality ships.

The ship
owners also said that if referring to the Decision 716, nearly all the ships
will not meet the requirements.

Safety first

Local
agencies still believe that it is necessary to apply strict regulations in
order to tighten the control over ships.

Nguyen Van
Khai, Deputy Director of the Quang Ninh Waterway Port Authorities, the agency
which grants licenses to ships, said he understands well the difficulties
ships’ owners are facing. However, he said: “safety is the priority”.

He said
that every day, the agency grant licenses to 700 ships to leave the stations and
the agency needs to be cautious when granting licenses

Source: Lao dong