Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has urged shipping companies – Goundar Shipping Company Limited and Patterson Brothers Shipping Company Limited to make use of the Gau Jetty at Qarani.

In his opening address of the new jetty on Wednesday Mr Bainimarama said: “This jetty is future proofed for a berthing capacity of 10,000 tonne vessels at the front face and 2000 tonne conventional berth.

“It spans 190 metres in length with a jetty head and landing area of 527 square metres.

“It can accommodate ‘Roll on – Roll Off’ vessels just like the ones that ferry between Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. It also has provisions for smaller fibre boats to access the jetty.”

The owner and manager of the – Goundar Shipping Company Limited George Goundar said that at the moment, the company did not have a franchise run to Gau.

However he said a decision would be made after carrying out an assessment on the new route.

He said currently Goundar Shipping was serving Koro, Savusavu and Taveuni.

Patterson Brothers Shipping Company Limited, David Patterson said at the moment they were serving Koro and with the new Gau Jetty, they would look into providing service to Gau soon.

According to the Prime Minister the new jetty will help open up Gau.

“It will – for the first time – provide an adequate loading and unloading facility that will cut down on transportation costs; reduce the time it takes to handle cargo; increase the frequency of shipping services and, make travel to and from Gau much more convenient.”

At Qarani Village soon after the traditional ceremony to request him to open the new jetty, the Prime Minister walked over to some students of Navukailagi District School sheltering under a breadfruit tree and chatted with them.

Mr Bainimarama asked the students if there was anything he could assist them with and they told him they wanted some library books.

“You are going to get what you want,” Mr Bainimarama told the students.

He asked their teacher to prepare a list of library books and send it to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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