ALOR SETAR, 27 Oct 2018:
The Ministry of Transport (MOT) has been asked to act against ferry operators – including disallowing them from continuing operations – if there were reports about repeated problems involving their ferries.
Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, when making the call, said stranded ferry incident could occur in two situations – namely when the ferry was sailing through shallow estuaries or when the operator failed to undertake proper and regular maintenance of the ferry.
“I want to remind ferry operators to view seriously the aspect of maintenance as we don’t want this incident to recur. Even if it was just stranded (due to shallow waters), it still failed to comply with the standards.”
Mukhriz said this in response to the incident in which 25 passengers and nine crew members were stranded after the ferry they were travelled in had an engine failure on the way to Kuala Kedah from Langkawi, at 3.30pm yesterday.
– Bernama