By Sariba Manneh
Abdoulie Tambedou, the general manager of the Gambia Ferry Services Company, has said there is no Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement between The Gambia Government and a Turkish private company on a secondhand ferry brought into the country by the latter to ease crossing challenges at the Banjul – Barra crossing point.
Mr. Tambedou, who spoke to this medium in an exclusive interview, said the ferry is owned by a Turkish Private Company called ‘Negmar’ Investment, and that they are the ones who brought the second-hand ferry to operate in the country. He said the secondhand ferry can only transport vehicles for the time being because there are no seats for passengers on this ferry at the moment.
Additionally, Mr. Tambedou said the present ramps cannot accommodate the operation of the secondhand ferry between Banjul and Barra where there are no slipways but instead, landing bridges at both ends of the terminal.
“The new secondhand ferry is similar to ‘Aljamdu’ and ‘Kansala’ ferries which were brought by the former president Yahya Jammeh and never operated in the country because we have only landing bridges at both Banjul-Barra terminals,” he said.
According to previous reports by some of the country’s media outlets, the arrival of the ferry is expected to improve the already poor ferry services along the Banjul-Barra route. However, the statements of the Managing Director of the Gambia Ferry Services indicate beyond doubt that the landing bridges at both Banjul-Barra terminals cannot accommodate the operations of this secondhand ferry which has slipways instead.
Meanwhile, complaints have been received by this medium that on Tuesday morning, the ‘KuntaKinteh’ ferry which resumed operations after undergoing repair works recently, was delayed to operate.
When contacted, the Management of the Gambia Ferry Services said that following the successful installation of three new engines, a Schottel Control Engineer, from Germany is on the ground this week to work on the propulsion systems of the acquired engines, and said intermittent disruption of the service are expected. They added that this is the result of the delay in the commencement of ferry service yesterday 21st May 2024. However, the ferry services management said they will strive to minimize the disruption as much as practicable.
