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| Thursday, 15 May 2008 |
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Home  Dar Guide |
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Reprints of my articles in The Dar Guide |
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The Kigamboni Ferry
To most of the residents of Dar es Salaam, the Kigamboni Ferry is a
convenient route to escape the crowds of the city and spend a pleasant
day on a tranquil southern beach, but to the 600,000 residents of
Kigamboni the ferry is a lifeline.  Not only does it act as the
community’s daladala, commuting 30,000 passengers to work and home each
day, but it also ferries in all their necessary goods. Truck loads of
staples, the full assortment of duka supplies, even drinking water
comes across that way. The unattractive alternative to the ten minute
crossing is a slow thirty kilometer drive (take Kilwa road south of the
city and turn left at Kongowe).
To some extent, the ferry created the very problem that it solves. Just
ten years ago the Kigamboni peninsula had far fewer residents, and the
ferry only carried half the number of people it carries today. But with
the arrival of the ‘20 car plus 800 passenger’ Kigamboni in 1990, the
ferry’s over overall capacity more than doubled from the Alina’s ‘15
car and 400 passenger’ load. The Kigamboni also shortened the average
wait time, which is now about ten minutes, depending on direction of
travel and the time of day.  (The Ministry of Works operates the ferry
and sets prices at 100 Tsh per passenger and 1000 Tsh for cars,
regardless of the time of day).
For those looking to cross from Dar
with minimal delay, weekday mornings between 6:00 and 10:00 are the
optimal time, because both boats are in service and the crowd is going
the other way. Between 10:00 and 15:00 hours there is generally a
single ferry operating. The good news is that both boats are fully
staffed around the clock so that they can respond to service needs
whenever they arise.
While the ferry is technically closed from 1:00 to
4:00 each morning, the Kigamboni residents know that it is just a radio
call away. It is not unusual for the boats to be called into service to
assist with emergency transport to one of the city’s hospitals. In fact
a few years back, when Kigamboni’s TIPER refinery was still in
operation, the ferry provided emergency service in the opposite
direction, ferrying the fire and rescue vehicles over to a blaze. They
shared the credit for keeping that blaze at bay.
Weekends are by far
the busiest time, with both boats in operation for over twelve
consecutive hours beginning around 9:00 am. That length of continuous
operation can create problems, the most common of which is clogging
caused by all the garbage in the harbor. Most of the clogging can be
handled by the skipper but several times a day it requires something
more. That’s where the fulltime dive team comes into play. The divers
are a virtual SWAT team in the water, hacking away at fishnets and
plastic sacks, and they are often able to restore performance without
significant delay.
And what will become of this venerable institution when the much
ballyhooed ‘new bridge’ is finally built? Current thinking is that the
bridge will cross further south down Magogoni creek, below where the
tankers come to berth. A bridge there would further open the peninsula
to development…and the upshot of that? Demand for ferry service on the
northern point is almost certainly here to stay.
Michael Gehron
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