GPA Hopeful To Build New Ferry Landers For Barra Banjul / Barra Crossing Points

Photo: Mr. Hali Abdoulie Gaye Addressing the press

By Ousman A. Marong

The Management teams of The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) are hopeful to build new ferry landers for the Barra/Banjul ferry landing sites.

Mr. Hali Abdoulie Cham, The Deputy Director of The Gambia Ferry Services (GFS), has revealed that procurement to established new ferry landing sites between Barra/Banjul has already been attained.

“The GPA Management is working very hard to procure new landers from damming to start the operation. We already have the landers and the winches in place. They have already arrived at the Ports but the only impediment is the COVID-19,” Hali Gaye told News Bite Gambia.

According to him, under normal circumstances the replacement of the old ferry landing sides should have been completed in April.

“All the borders across the globe are closed and our teams of engineers who are supposed to do the replacement is still in the Netherlands because there are no flights from the Netherlands,” he said.

He made these disclosures yesterday while addressing the media on way forward for the two ferry landing sites.  

Gaye has commended the tireless efforts of the government to ensure that operations start in earnest at the ferry services.

“If we start work, operations between Banjul and Barra ferry services will be close for a month and we did not want to create any inconvenience as the “Tobaski” is fast approaching that will cause difficulties at the two ferry crossing points. We are currently working with our counterparts in Damming and suppose they cannot come then we will start the work in August,” said Deputy Director Gaye.

Mr. Gage further revealed that the two landers are made up of wenches and manual. He said a sum of One Hundred and Forty Thousand Euro €140, 000, has been budgeted for the rehabilitation.

“Our technical team is currently engaged in damming which is the fabrication of the counterweight to access points and they are doing a lot of civil engineering work. The engineers are from Damming and are already here. There’s no time to waste. There would be an inconvenience as to when we start the work but the Senegambia bridge will be open for easy accessing of passengers;” he remarked. 

Omar Ndure, a Master Dragger from Senegal praised the quality of his company (NSMTP) work, saying the company has been working on the dragging system within the sub-region. He said the dragging system in the Barra landing side would be of good quality and its work process would be faster.

Meanwhile, the distance between Barra/ Banjul ferry is 8 nautical miles.