By Mafugi Ceesay
A potential travel chaos across the Barra-Banjul waterway has been delayed after the Gambia Ports Authority announced it has suspended plans to start constructing ferry ramps due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ferry services on the stretch were expected to halt for at least one month effective 10th August to allow the construction of the two ferry ramps. That would have meant only the rogues and canoes will ply the route traveled by tens of thousands each day.
But the GPA spokesperson Modou Lamin Sanyang confirmed to The Standard yesterday the planned construction has been put on hold due to the surge of Covid-19 cases.
“You know the experts who are coming to work on it are based in the Netherlands and the experts are advised to hold on until the Covid-19 situation has eased. For now, ferry services will continue as normal until further notice,” PRO Sanyang said.
Meanwhile, a Senegalese truck yesterday afternoon got stuck at the Barra landing site while trying to enter the ferry resulting in hours of delay because the ferry couldn’t move.
The construction of the ferry landers will cost about 700,000 euros.
The current landers were constructed by a German company in 1977 and were last rehabilitated in 2007. The GPA was projected to lose over D15 million during the one-month break which should have started on August 10.
