Kenya Ferry Services is set to introduce cable cars at the Likoni crossing channel.

According to Kenya Ferry Services (KFS), the car, the first of its kind Kenya, will be introduced from March next year. The cable cars will have a capacity to carry 11,000 passengers per hour in both directions.

The trip, which normally takes about ten minutes, will now take only two minutes by the car. However the car cannot carry vehicles or heavy luggage. A ride will cost Sh20 during off peak hours and Sh50 during peak hours. Yesterday, KFS signed an agreement with a private company to establish the express cable car service across the 500m channel.

The service, linking Mombasa island and south mainland, is expected to reduce the long traffic jams and also boost tourism in the South Coast by providing pedestrians with an alternative crossing for the channel and, in the process, reduce delays.

Trapos Africa is the consultant for the public-private partnership project and KFS said the project will take 14 months to complete after construction work commences. KFS Managing Director Bakari Gowa (pictured) said once operational, the cable cars will ferry close to 20 per cent of the ferry users (80,000 people per day), thus easing congestion on the ferries.

KFS estimates that 300,000 people and 6,000 vehicles cross the Likoni Ferry Channel daily. “When this is actualised then we can comfortably talk about value addition to destination Kwale and the larger South Coast at large,” Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers (Kahc) Coast branch Executive officer Sam Ikwaye said.