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Sigh relief as MV Pearl resumes operations
MV Pearl, one of the passenger ferries linking Masaka mainland to Kalangala Islands. PHOTO | SYLVESTER SSEMUGENYI
What you need to know:
- MV Pearl, which is one of the two vessels that ply the Bugoma-Bukakkata route on Lake Victoria has been grounded for merely a month after suffering a mechanical fault.
Travellers to and fro Ssese islands in Kalangala District and Masaka can now breathe a sigh of relief after MV Pearl resumed normal operations Friday.
MV Pearl, which is one of the two vessels that ply the Bugoma-Bukakkata route on Lake Victoria has been grounded for merely a month after suffering a mechanical fault.
This created a lot of pressure on MV Ssese prompting it to make extra daily trips to transport huge volumes of passengers and cargo.
Mr Joseph Mulindwa, the Public Relations Officer of Kalangala Infrastructure Services (KIS), which manages the two ferries, said the delay of MV Pearl to resume normal daily operations was occasioned by the late procurement of spare parts.
“Our engineers had to get spare parts from the United Kingdom which took some time to be shipped into the country, but the issue has since been fixed and the vessel is now operating smoothly,” he said in an interview on Friday.
Mr Ambrose Ssekitto, a truck driver and a daily traveller on the Masaka-Kalangala route said: “There are high volumes of cargo on this route and that is why they put two ferries. We have been facing difficulty in taking all the cargo at once and we are happy that the second ferry is now operational."
