Online ferry booking system will help conserve fuel, weed out corruption

Last Updated on Saturday, 1 October 2022, 21:43 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana’s first online ferry booking system will help the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) to decide whether to postpone trips with few bookings as well as weed out corruption by staff who facilitate priority vehicle crossings, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill said Saturday.

“We have to stop the corruption. We have to stop the occasion for corruption and often times the people who complain about the corruption are the people who participate in the corruption and when it didn’t work for them, that’s when they c0mplain,” he said. “From today, I’m making it clear nobody has to offer lunch, breakfast, dinner or any special incentive to any member of the staff of the Transport and Harbours Department to get on a ferry,” he said. Minister of Public Works II, Deodat Indar said his ministry has been receiving numerous complaints about persons using their contacts to get ahead of others who are are part of the queue. “We have been plagued by those calls,” he said, adding that the online booking system will “reduce it.”

Speaking at the launch of the service at the Parika Ferry Stelling, East Bank Essequibo, he also told attendees that the online booking system, which will initially cater to the Parika-Supenaam route, will be expanded to others included the Guyana-Suriname Canawaima Ferry Service. He said the booking system could see T&HD saving money by only reasonably booked ferries to proceed on their journeys. “Online booking would also help us to conserve because if we only have two or three vehicles booked and twenty passengers for a trip, it will allows us the opportunity to communicate with those who are booked for that particular time ahead of time to make alternative arrangements of moving them so as not to send that vessel down spending hundreds of thousands in fuel to move a small group,” he said. The Public Works Minister said the platform would alert T&HD about the need for additional vessels on a route based on the number of bookings.

General Manager of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph’s (GTT) Mobile Money Guyana (MMG), Babita Ram said her company has worked closely with T&HD to roll out Ferry Pass. “MMG brings this service closer to each and every commuter in a very tangible way,” she said. Ms. Ram noted that 00,000 persons or more than 10 percent of Guyana’s population use MMG. The MMG official said payments could be made from commuters MMG app or at any of the more than 800 MMG agents countrywide.

The online ferry booking platform has been hailed as one that will facilitate the proper planning of travel for leisure, business or personal reasons as well as save a lot of time. “This making life easy for everybody and it is making the system one that is fair and predictable and at the same time we’re saving time,” added Mr Edghill.

Public Works Minister Edghill said online booking is expected to available for Bartica by December 1, 2022;  Leguan, Wakenaam , Fort Island, Mabaruma, Port Kaituma and Morawhana by January 1, 2023