By Assan Bah
Mr Abdoulie Tambedou, the General Manager (GM) of the Gambia Ferry Service Company (GFSC), has informed Foroyaa that they expect Kunta – Kinteh ferry to resume operation either today (Friday) or tomorrow (Saturday).
The ferry, which was last operational on April 12 when the Kanilai ferry was stranded at sea for hours and subsequently drifted at sea, had been undergoing a six-week maintenance break.
This cessation of the services by the ferry service has since brought lots of public outcry within the country, particularly the people of the North Bank, who have their businesses, schools, and most importantly seek proper medical attention in the Kombos, as the country’s main referral hospital is in Banjul, the Capital city.
Following a press release dated the 8th of May, 2024 indicating that services will resume soon, the General Manager was asked when exactly the ferries would resume operation.
He said: “Maybe we will start tomorrow, in a day or two. We may recommence tomorrow. All the three engines have been installed; we are doing the final check-up.”
Considering the Banjul – Barra crossing point is a busy transit point where hundreds of people including students, patients coming to Banjul for proper medical attention, business men and women use daily to cross to either Banjul or Barra, this stoppage of operation has, according to many, caused several losses to people’s businesses. In response to this, GM Tambedou said, “we have offered support to the students crossing from Banjul to Barra and Public Health Workers, with the help of the Fire and Rescue Services in transferring patients to Banjul with their emergency boats. We have also built a cart walk at the Banjul boat landing points and we are working on the one at Barra”.
Asked about the amount of money they have lost as a result of the cessation of this valuable service, he said, “for us we don’t usually make a lot of money as our tariffs do not recover the cost of the service but we are not considering it as a loss of revenue for the ferries, but we see it as a lost opportunity for the entire country”.
He said the halt in service delivery does not only lead to loss of revenue but causes macroeconomic challenges for the whole country as business in some parts of the country has dropped.
When asked how the stranded ferry (Kanilai) had to go all the way to the Buniadubolong where it drifted for a week without it being stopped and whether the ferries have any anchors on them which could have deterred the incident, he responded: “All the ferries have anchors but we are investigating if they are operational and if they were used or why weren’t they used. The public will be informed accordingly when the investigations are finalised.”
Another safety measure which is usually observed in the ferries is the lack of medical workers or first aiders and security personnel who can assist during emergencies, with the Ferries boss saying they do not have any but are working on having such in the ferries.
Part of the new measures that the ferry service has decided to take is the cancellation of the premium services, which Mr Tambedou said is caused by limited capacity.
“We decided to cancel the premium services because we will be using one ferry for months to complete the Kanilai ferry project. Due to the limited capacity, we deemed it necessary to discontinue the premium service and we will have our customers on a first come first serve basis,” he said.
Tambedou, however, expressed regret on behalf of the Ferry Service Management for the disruptions caused by closure of operation and assured the public of an improved service delivery.
“We know our problems and we want to improve on them. We will be starting at 6am and close 9pm to reduce the pressure on the engines,” he said.
He added: “We have never run with one engine. We sometimes work with two but that is when the one had a problem along the way and the Gambia maritime agency has reviewed our operation and advised us for the ferries to not operate with one engine and that will be observed to the latter.”
Meanwhile, a pressure group dubbed, “SESNEN” was formed by various concerned groups of youth (Niumi Hands, National Youth Parliament, and the Gambia Participate) to protest against the poor services of the of Ferry Services, which it said has caused huge socio-economic losses to the people and sometimes loss of lives. They demand a sea ambulance and a chart walk at the boat crossing points.
This group was denied a permit by the Gambia Police Force (GPF) on April 19 citing security challenges ahead of the OIC Summit which was held on the 4th and 5th of this month.
Hon. Omar Cham of the National Youth Parliament, the group’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) was called to confirm if their demands were fulfilled by the authorities but said the only fulfilled demand was the construction of a cart walk in Banjul.
