New Goundar Shipping Limited (GSL) vessels Lomaiviti Princess 8 and Lomaiviti Princess 9 go for a trial run tomorrow from Ellington jetty in Rakiraki to Nabouwalu and Natovi jetty to Nabouwalu.

This is part of local shipping tycoon George Goundar’s mission to provide better shipping services.

“I do not believe in competition, I want to provide the best shipping service to those in the outer islands and west,” GSL managing director Goundar said.

“This Thursday (tomorrow) we will be doing a trial run from Natovi to Nabouwalu,” he said.

“The fare would be $40 to Labasa and Savusavu. We will be doing a crossing of roughly two and a half hours.

“For me, I look at the service and I don’t believe in competition. We hope to meet the standard of what the passengers expect. For us, we will match and beat any price by five per cent.

“We want to give options to people now. They will now have three companies and what matters now is the kind of service we provide.

“When we meet the service, it will be a bonus for us;  we are looking forward to positive feedback from the public.

“The trial run for Ellington-Nabouwalu will also be on Thursday tomorrow and we are hoping that by the end of the month we would make the first official trip.

“We will be putting a regular service from Ellington on Lomaiviti Princess 8 while Lomaiviti Princess 9 will be for the Natovi to Nabouwalu trip.

“For me, the people from the West will benefit from this arrangement. They will go straight from Ellington to Labasa instead of having to come to Suva or Natovi.

“We are trying to cut down the service time for those travelling from the West.

“Rather than them driving all the way from Lautoka to Natovi they will just travel to Rakiraki and board from Ellington to go to Labasa.

“We are aiming that by the end of the month everything will work out. We are currently working on the bus company that will provide direct bus service from Suva and Ellington to Labasa.

“One can say that the public has choices now. I just hope that all the shipping companies at Natovi would work together and that is my only concern.”

Meanwhile, Mr Goundar thanked all his staff for their commitment and dedication.

“We will have specials to celebrate our eighth anniversary. We will have a special rate for the whole fleet that we have,” he said.

“It is a great achievement and I have to thank my crew for the hard work they have done and the loyalty they have shown. There have been a lot of challenges; I thank the Government for their assistance and facilitating because without their assistance it would have been difficult.

“We look forward to the new services we will soon be providing to maritime travellers.”

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