Alusine Daramy, the General Manager for the M.V. Mahera and Great Scarcies Company, has said on Monday June 8, 2020 that, the inter-district lockdown, restricting movement of people has negatively affected the operation of the ferry.
Daramy said that before the outbreak of the Coronavirus, the ferry did five trips a day – transporting passengers at 8:00 am, 11:00 am, 2:00pm, 5:30 pm and 8:00 pm , but due to the inter-district lockdown they are now doing one trip a day and three trips a week, which he said has not only affected the passengers, but also the company as a whole.
He asserted, “We used to do 175 trips per month, but now we are only doing 12 to 15 trips a month due to the inter-district lockdown and the restriction of the movement of the people. The inter-district lockdown has cut our operations right down.”
He said that the fall in the movement of people has dwindle their business which now transporting only 250 passengers usually traders, essential service workers and those with passes from the EOC at the cost of Le 20,000 to and from their destinations. “Before the outbreak we used to take 450 to 500 passengers but now we are only taking 250 passengers and the passengers are only traders with food stuffs and essential service workers and those that have passes from the EOC.”
Manager Daramy said that, in order to reduce the pressure at the terminal, they had recently met with stakeholders with a view to operating five trips a week which, he said, would soon be the case.
He further explained that they were finding it very difficult to maintain the cost of operating the ferry which he insisted have to be maintenanced, fueled and operated by staff who are on salary, but due to ineffective operations “nothing is going normal”. He added that, they used to pay close to 50 workers, but now such staffare not effectively receiving salaries due to the scaling down of their operations. “We are trying to have other sources of generating money for the workers at the terminal so that at the end of the month their issues would be addressed.”
He said that, people used to use the Lungi exit to go to other parts of Northern Sierra Leone which could lead to the further spread of the virus into the country. He added that to put such activities under control, they have mounted a checkpoint to screen people. “Recently we arrested two people who were reselling tickets that had been sold,” he said.
Manager Daramy explained the company is working very hard to get its staff and the passengers to comply with all measures to prevent the Coronavirus, adding that before passengers get access to the ferry their body temperature is checked, they wash their hands, put on face masks, maintain social distance and made to buy return tickets at the cost of Le 20,000 to avoid deceptions.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
11/6/2020. ISSUE NO. 7843