AREQUIPA, Peru – This Saturday, November 30, the Perseverancia ferry resumed its trips at 7:00 AM on the Nueva Gerona-Batabanó route, reestablishing transportation to the special municipality Isla de la Juventud, almost isolated for three weeks after the passage of the Hurricane Rafael.
Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila, Cuban Minister of Transportation, celebrated on Facebook that the company that carried out the dredging fulfilled its commitment within the scheduled time and in just five days it completed the first scheduled stage of the project, which included the dredging of the two critical points of the access channel to the port that made it difficult for the ferry to dock.
“On this first trip, only passengers and their luggage will be allowed, according to the shipping company’s rules, established in conjunction with the Viajeros agency, and the rolling loads that the ferry usually transports will not be included, its resumption will be informed in a timely manner,” announced the holder.
At the conclusion of this first trip, Rodríguez Dávila explained, the frequencies and schedules of the next ones would be announced.
Simultaneously with the resumption of the Perseverancia service, the authorities of the Cuban regime indicated that work will continue on the second stage of the dredging projectwhich will include the maneuvering basin and the entire access channel.
These tasks, the minister clarifies, will not prevent ferry trips from being regularized starting next week, but they will not allow them to be carried out daily either.
After praising the return of the Perseverancia ferry from Batabanó to Nueva Gerona on November 10, the Cuban regime stopped the regular operations of this vessel, the only one that currently offers maritime passenger transportation services between the two destinations.
After the interruption, the special municipality was isolated from the rest of the Cuban archipelago. The problem, as authorities warned of the Island, would remain indefinitely “until further notice” and its solution would depend on dredging in the port of Batabanó.
“Without a doubt it constitutes one of the main concerns not only of the pine trees but also of the highest local authorities because the economic development of the Isle of Youth largely depends on this ‘highway’,” the state-run newspaper noted at the time. Victoria Newspaper.
