Patna: A senior IAS officer and vice-president of the Bihar state disaster management authority, Vyasji, underlined the need to fix the load as well as registration of boats, especially countryboats, to prevent boat mishaps in the state.

Addressing the concluding session of the 3-day training programme for government officials on Friday, Vyasji said that the authority was serious about frequent boat tragedies, mainly because proper training and life-saving facilities were not provided to the boat men.

The vice-chairman of the authority pointed out that initially the boatmen were imparted training in 29 out of 38 districts in the state.

Now, government officials who were posted at in blocks and districts were being trained to ensure that rules and regulations for ferrying of boats in rivers were implemented effectively.

He also stressed on the need for proper maintenance of boats such as plugging of holes and proper upkeep of boats during rainy season when most of the rivers are in spate and people travel on boats to reach their destination.

Speaking on the occasion the project officer of the authority, Jeevan Kumar, said that a total of 22 sub-divisional officer, circle officers, district transport officer, motor vehicle inspector and other officials took part in the training programme that concluded on Friday.

Earlier, Vyasji distributed certificates among the trainees at Gaighat in Patna City-ased National Inland Navigation Institute (NINI).

NINI administrative officer Arun Vir Dhanda told The Telegraph that the institute principal captain Suman Sahay, captain Vinod Kumar and chief engineer Raman Kumar had provided training to the officers.