By Adama Makasuba
The Gambia Ferry Service has announced its maintenance plans for the Kanilai Ferry in a bid to address long hours river crossing between Destination Banjul and Barra.
The announcement of the maintenance plans come amid public outcry of long hours of river crossing, which the ferry service linked the long hours delay to entanglement of the ferry machines with a fishing net on the waters.
Speaking to group of reporters at Banjul Ferry Terminal, Lamin Jawara, General Manager of Gambia Ferry Services, said: “The maintenance that we have announced is completed now. That maintenance involved only the Johe and Kunta Kinteh Ferries.”
“But the other project we have is Kanilai [and] we are currently working on that, but that was not included in the previous work that was scheduled. So, it is now that we are putting the parts together to schedule that work. Once we start that, that ferry will also be out of service for a while,” he disclosed.
According to him, the Johe and Kunta Kinteh Ferries are also going under normal routine maintenance services to make river travel fast and easier.
However, he said despite that fishing contributes to the nation’s economic growths but he urged the fishermen to fish responsibly in the waters by not encroaching on the routes of the ferry between the two landing terminal stations.
The activities of local fisher folks along Banjul-Barra route continue to have huge toll on the ferries. The nets cast on the navigational channels poses threats to ferry efficiency and productivity. Just last week, Kunta Kinteh Ferry got entangled with fishing nets while on voyage, causing the engines to automatically shut down. These are new engines installed on the ferry in the recently concluded ferry rehabilitation exercise.
