By Binta Jaiteh
The Gambia Transport Security Cooperation (GTSC) has lamented on challenges facing the institution mainly in term of foreign exchanges rates and fuel cost.
Seedy Kanyi , GTSU general manager said foreign exchange rates continue to impact on their operations because they imported all their buses from outside the country and most of the spare parts are frequently changing, while the exchange rates have been detrimental to our cash flow.
“The, inadequate road infrastructure in major settlement since the inception of GTSC has adopted the policy to operate only on far roads and since there is definite number of tar roads in The Gambia. We have limitations to expand our services in Salikenni, Njabo Kunda , and other settlements,” he said.
“The aging and overused of the fleet have been one of our main challenges, according to the manufacturer the buses were supposed to last for 7 years or clock 300,000 kilometres. However, most of our buses have operated over 700,000 kilometres due to lack of buffers to relieve them adding that due to age and usage buses have become hard to maintain even with well-equipped and stocked workshops.
“Our international service has been lucrative, we have encountering issues at the borders and at informal checkpoints even though there is agreement with the government security forces and transport unions,” he added.
“We have written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be added onto all the ECOWAS technical committees on transport and working to further tighten our partnership with Senegal’s main public transport company to mitigate this risk. We hope that in the near future, all our services will freely and smoothly operate written outside The Gambia,” he disclosed.
