• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Lite Ferries Shipping Company will start its Manapla-Ajuy-Manapla operations on June 28, the management of Manapla Port Stevedoring and Arrastre (MPSA) announced over the weekend.
Lite Ferries will deploy bigger and faster vessels for the convenience and safety of passengers and cargo with an on-time travel policy, it added.
It will navigate daily from Manapla Port in Negros Occidental to Ajuy Port in Iloilo at 7 a.m., 1 p.m., 7 p.m., and 1 a.m. while the Ajuy Port to Manapla Port trip schedule is 4 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m., and 10 p.m.
Travel time is one hour and 30 minutes.
MPSA said its port in Barangay Punta Salong is the final link completing the new nautical route from Manapla, Negros Occidental to Panay via Ajuy Philippine Ports Authority Port.
The Lite Ferries Shipping Company will also open soon another route, from Manapla Port to Concepcion Port in Iloilo, the MPSA said.
“These routes are faster, better than other sea vessel routes and very advantageous to passengers, with bigger spaces for cargo transporters,” it added.
The opening of new routes to Panay is expected to further boost the tourism industry and economy of Negros Occidental and Iloilo provinces.
MPSA is designed as an inclusive development, with facilities built for the end-user and managed by the community.
It aims to provide not just livelihood, but overall human development.
“All the Manaplanahons are excited for the operation of the port because it will boost our economy. The rice trading will be faster from Panay to Negros Occidental,” Mayor Manuel Escalante III said.
Escalante shared that it has been their dream to have a port in Manapla.
MPSA said that it will work with the municipal government in the establishment of a cooperative, composed of women, to manage and operate the passenger terminal canteen, toilet and bath, and lodging facility for drivers of vehicles who will cross to the other island. | GB
