Its a new dawn for the trans Victoria water transport as the much anticipated MV Pamba, which had been grounded for 17 years now, resumes full operation with a highly rehabilitated state of the art system.
The ferry’s service resumption was earlier commisioned off by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabanja at PortBell in Luzira, Uganda where the ship had been docked with rehabilitation works going on.
The 34 year old ship will thus resume commercial services across L.Victoria especially between the ports of Mwanza in Tanzania, Jinja, Kisumu (Kenya) and Portbell in Uganda trading in a number of products such as petroleum and others. The vessel of 24 crew has the capacity to carry 22 wagons.
The ferry that was and is managed by the Uganda Railways Commission projects a great time ahead after this restoration. The rehabilitation of MV Pamba after its breakdown was estimated to have cost sh12bn and was undertaken by Mango Tree Group, a Chinese firm.
Why it was suspended
On 8 May 2005, MV Pamba was en route to Mwanza Port in Tanzania when her sister ships MV Kaawa and MV Kabalega collided with each other. Pemba received a distress call, put about, and reached the scene of the collision one and a half hours later. Kabalega was sinking so Pemba positioned herself alongside, rescued her eight officers and 16 crew and landed them back at Port Bell in Uganda.
It was later established that all three Ugandan vessels; Kaawa, Kabalega and Pemba had no marine insurance at the time of the accident. The insurance policy for the three vessels had expired in December 2004 and had not been renewed. After the collision Kaawa was withdrawn from service for repairs to her bow and Pemba was suspended from service, due to lack of radar and other modern navigational aids.
MV Kaawa is already operational though currently under mandatory survey and repair at Port Bell Pier. Plans are also underway to retrieve MV Kabalega which sunk in Lake Victoria in 2005.
Currently, Uganda boasts of about 10 inland ferries, three wagon ferries, about two private ferries operated by private companies, and ships among others. The operational inland ferries include; the Masindi ferry plying Masindi-Lango route, Nakiwogo ferry plying Mpigi-Entebbe route, Buvuma ferry, Bukakata-Kalangala ferry, Kiyindi-Buvuma ferry and Lake Bisina in Soroti, all of which are controlled by Uganda National Roads Authority and Office of the Prime Minister.
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