Businesses persons who were scheduled to travel at midday from Parika, Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) to Supenaam, in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) on Monday and Wednesday were inconvenienced due to engine failure on the MV Kanawan.
The crew discovered a problem with the vessel on Monday morning when it docked at Parika around 07:00h. The malfunction was fixed on Monday but the problem was again encountered on Wednesday morning. Hence, there was no midday service on Wednesday, which caused frustrations to build among business persons waiting at the Parika stelling, as they were hoping to utilise the service to conduct their business. Several businessmen, who were at the head of the line to board the vessel, argued further that they were not given priority even though they were at the stelling since morning.
Service demanded
Due to the demand from persons to have an additional ferry run introduced to assist passengers and the business community in conducting their daily activities, the Public Infrastructure Ministry had introduced a midday service to facilitate the needs of the populace.
There are three scheduled ferry services daily – 04:00h, 12:00h (noon) and 17:00h. The MV Kanawan and MV Sabanto usually ply the Parika to Supenaam route.
According to an official attached to the Public Infrastructure Ministry, the ancient MV Malali was put into operation to assist with the transportation of vehicles from Parika to Supenaam. The official said a team is presently working to fix the problems affecting the proper functioning of the MV Kanawan.
While some passengers waited a further nine hours to commence their journey, others were forced to cancel their trips due to the delays.
