Ik heb eens wat lopen snuffelen op internet en heb de indruk gekregen dat mv Serengeti niet meer bij Azam Marine in dienst is. Mijn indruk is dat het schip nu een lijndienst onderhoudt tussen Port Bell en Mwanza. Hij vaart dus rond op het Victoria meer. Onderstaand een klein stukje wat ik o.a. vond op het net.
When asked about the vessels plying the Mwanza - Port Bell route, State Minister for Transport John Byabagambi said it is true these vessels are coming to Uganda but are unscheduled. Byabagambi got to know about MV Serengeti for the first time during this interview with The Independent , upon which he called his commissioner for transport, who acknowledged receipt of an application for a license from Marine Services Ltd to operate the Port Bell - Mwanza route.
The commissioner for marine transport in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Mr Godfrey Wandera, said that because of the East African Cooperation treaty, once a vessel is licensed in one country it doesn?t need to register in another. However, Byabagambi said Tanzanian vessels are very old and dangerous because they decommission them from the Indian Ocean and commission them on inland waters.
But Marine Services Ltd general manager, Mr Mchauru, who is based in Mwanza dismissed Byabagambi?s claims, saying MV Serengeti is still sound, MV Serengeti and MV Umoja, he said, are licensed by Tanzania?s Ministry of Infrastructure Development, which is a member of International Maritime Organisation.
The vessel plies the Mwanza/Port Bell route once a week. It has a passenger capacity of 593 people and 350 tons of cargo. MV Serengeti offers first class travel at Tshs 45,000 (Ushs 60,000), second class travel at Tshs 30,000 (Ushs 40,000) and economy class at Tshs 25,000 (Ushs 34,000) all payable aboard the vessel.
MV Umoja is a containerised cargo vessel, charging $800 per container for export, while imports are charged $1,114 per container. MV Serengeti cargo charge is $40 per ton for exports and $48 for imports.
Mchauru says MV Serengeti meets all the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Regulations 2005 of Tanzania. These provisions include the condition of the structure, machinery and equipment, fire safety systems and appliances, fire control plan, life-savings appliances and the survival craft and their equipment.
MV Serengeti is equipped with communications and navigational equipment that have been found to be satisfactory by the government surveyor in Tanzania. As a result of the survey the vessel was awarded a Certificate of Sea Worthiness and Certificate of Safe Manning.
The last passenger vessel to ply the Port Bell/Mwanza route was the MV Bukoba which sank near Mwanza on May 21, 1996 and more than 1,000 people aboard the overloaded vessel perished.
Since the grounding of MV Pamba and MV Kaawa, the only Ugandan vessel active on Lake Victoria is MV Kalangala that plies between Nakiwogo in Entebbe and the Ssese Islands. Another Ugandan vessel, MV Barbus, which used to move between Port Bell and Kalangala, was decommissioned several years ago.
In spite of a government promise early this year to rehabilitate its vessels within three months, to date nothing has been done.
