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’Legendary’ speed boats suspended..
2006-01-06 09:27:56
By Angel Navuri
The Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (SUMATRA), has swiftly moved in to avert disaster by halting the operations of the much talked about speed boats plying Lake Victoria, over safety considerations.
The two marine vessels, whose operations have been stopped by the national transport regulatory body, are said to have been regularly experiencing frequent engine failures and stalling mid-lake when ferrying passengers.
SUMATRA’s decision was made public yesterday in Dar es Salaam in a press release issued by the Tanzania Information Services (Maelezo).
The statement says the decision was made to guarantee passengers safety and pave the way for a thorough investigation into their viability.
’Engines of the speed boats have been reported to be switching off frequently while moving at high speed,’ says the statement signed by SUMATRA Director Isreal Sekirasa, the statement clarifies that the organisation had learnt of the anomally recently and had linked the said frequent switch-off to alleged use of contaminated fuel.
’We are making a good and thorough check-up on the fuel and the engines, to determine whether the source of the problem is fuel or technical fault,’said Sekirasa.
He added that SUMATRA engineers from Mwanza had been monitoring speed of the two boats to confirm and obtain more facts on the claims.
Efforts by The Guardian to reach Lake Fast Ferries, the operators of the boats, for comment, proved futile.
The speedboats started providing services on Lake Victoria in September last year, after having been dry-docked for over a year, pending transportation by road from Dar es Salaam to Mwanza.
Lake Fast Ferries imported the boats into the country in June 2004 and were scheduled to be transported to Mwanza at the end of July.
However, the then Minister for Works, John Magufuli, refused to issue a permit to the transporting company, Truck Parts Ltd, on grounds that the measurements of the boats did not tally with the country’s road specifications.
He had thus advised the transporters to dismantle the boats and transport them in pieces.
The suggestion was, however, rejected by both the transporters and the owners of the boats who had argued that doing so would disturb the alignment of the boats.
In July, the Truck Parts Ltd secured a permit from the government of Kenya to transport the boats from Mombasa to Kisumu through Nairobi.
The boats have thus provided services for only about four months before being grounded.
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