Outer-lying island of Makunudhoo struggles amid RTL ferry cancellations

The outer-lying island of HDh. Makunudhoo has been struggling for over a week with repeated cancellation of Raajje Transport Link (RTL) ferry services between the island and Kulhudhuffushi City.

Makunudhoo Council president Abdulla Waheed told Sun on Wednesday that the Makunudhoo-Kulhudhuffushi service has been getting cancelled for over a week.

Waheed stressed that the people of Makunudhoo are heavily dependent on the service, which remains the only mode of public transport off the island.

“They usually cite bad weather or launch maintenance. These are the most common reasons they give,” he said.

Waheed said that the disruption to the ferry service is forcing the people of Makunudhoo to pay a large amount of money to hire private speedboats to make necessary trips.

“RTL is a huge convenience to the people. But the service isn’t being provided to the satisfaction of the people right now. The people hope the government addresses this,” he said.

Waheed said that the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC), which operates the RTL, has stated that they were working on resolving the issue.

“We even schedule appointments with doctors based on the RTL. And its also pretty hard now, to even book an appointment. But when we do manage to get finally get an appointment after much struggle, the RTL gets cancelled the next day,” he said.

“Even when we book a plane ticket to go to Male’, the RTL gets cancelled and we have to change tickets.”

MTCC was not immediately available for comment regarding the issue.