Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Disaster Management and Meteorological Services Jone Usamate said Government was looking at increasing franchise contract to 10 or 15 years to encourage shipping companies bring in better ship because the travelling public of Fiji they deserve better ships.

Mr Usamate made the statement during his speech in Parliament last Friday.

“If we try and get rid of all these vessels right now then what happens is that there might be no transportation so we need to sort of balance and be sensible,” Mr Usamate said.

“We are trying to make sure that they meet the current standard that we have,” he said.

“In the process we hope to put in incentive system process so that shipping companies can bring in younger vessels and much well quality vessels so that people can travel in comfort.

“This year we will be implementing the Safe Ship Management System (SSMS) which means that the current system, after six months your ship gets inspected visually and after one year the ship goes to the dry dock and gets a full inspection.

“In between six and 12 months period the SSMS will make sure that the ship itself and the people on the ship have certain responsibilities to make sure that the ship is working safely within the period under which they are under survey.

“That will help prevent maritime accidents and also protect the marine environment.

“So that is something that is going to be strengthened from July of this year.

“We will continue to try and enforce the standards to the system we already have in place.

“There was a mention by Honourable Qereqeretabua (Lenora) about excessive overcrowding and yes, that is something that we are trying to enforce very strongly.

“If need be, we will need to control the number of people on the boats that are going especially those that are going in festive seasons.”