By Pa Ablie Corr
The Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of the Gambia Ferry Services (GFS) Mr. Hali Abdoulie Gai, has revealed that procurement had been done to establish new ferry landing sites at Barra and Banjul crossing points.
“GPA Management through the managing Director and the management team are working very hard in making sure we procure new landers from damming to operation. We already have the landers and the winches in place. They have already arrived and are at ports. The only impediment is the COVID-19;” Gai disclosed. He said under normal circumstances, operating to replace the old ferry landing sites should have been completed in April [this year].
The DMD explained that all the borders across the globe are closed and their team of engineers who are supposed to do the replacement are from the Netherlands, and there are no flights from the Netherlands. Besides, he indicated that, the Barrow government has been doing all it could so that they start operation. Gai, however, hinted that if they start work on the sites, operations of the Banjul and Barra ferry services will be closed for a month.
Due to this, Gai said they didn’t want to create any inconvenience as the Tobaski (Muslim feast) is fast approaching and people have the ferry in between the two ferry crossings points. Saying they are currently working with their counterparts in Daming, he indicated that if they cannot come, then the works on the sites would start in August.
Noting that the two landers are made up of wenches and manual, Gai said the amount put in place for the rehabilitation is One hundred and forty-thousand euros (€140,000).
He further told the press: “Our technical team are currently engaged in what is required of them by the Daming and that is the fabrication of the counter weight to access points, and they are doing lot of civil engineering works. The engineers are from Daming and are already here. There’s no time to waste.” He pointed out that there would be inconvenience when they start the work, but assured that the Senegambia bridge would be open for easy accessing of passengers.
On his part, Omar Ndure, Master Dragger from Senegal spoke about his company’s “quality”, saying NSMTP has been working on dragging system within the sub-region. He vowed that the dragging system in the Barra landing site would be of good quality and the completion of its work process would be fast.
