HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon has reaffirmed that the two new roll-on and roll-off ferries, Kanawan and Sapanto, are expected to be operational by the end of this month. He made this disclosure yesterday during his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing in which he addressed questions on the state of readiness of the two vessels, which arrived from China in December 2011.
He explained: “Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, has identified the period for the ferries to be made water ready, so that they can operate in Guyana.”
In addition, the Cabinet Secretary noted that during this period the staff of the Transport and Harbours Department will, under the tutelage of the Chinese engineers and professionals, receive training on the use and maintenance of the ferries.
While this is underway, works will also be progressing on the civil infrastructure at Parika and Supenaam, where the ferries would dock, he added.
“The minister has continued to provide Cabinet with updates on the time frame and developments with the planned course of action, and I believe that he has reassured Cabinet that the timetable to late February would be met, when the two ferries would be put into operation,” the HPS reiterated.
Upon the vessels’ arrival in December of last year, Minister Benn, along with officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Public Works and the Chinese Embassy, inspected the vessels and pronounced that they will become operational in February, 2012.
“We have a number of Chinese experts here, who are here for forty days, awaiting the arrival of the vessels; and, for the next two weeks, they will work on certain adjustments, modifications and working (upon) river and sea trials of the vessels. Then, thereafter, there will be some three weeks of training for the national crews for the vessels, which are ten each,” Benn revealed, as he inspected the ferries.
The overall cost for the vessels is US$14.5M, which is equivalent to Gy$2.5B. Minister Benn emphasised that the two vessels represented an enormous transformation in riverine transportation, and that it was testimony of the partnership shared between Guyana and China in developing the country.
The two new vessels were built under a Chinese grant. Each has passenger capacity of eight hundred, while the vehicular accommodation is twenty lorries or forty-four cars.