After some time when MV Kalangala was grounded for maintenance, since then, the Kalangala Nakiwogo route has been served by Nathalie and MV Vanessa.
In June Kalangala district received a new water vessel, MV NODL, which serves the Nakiwongo and Lutoboka routes together with MV Kalangala.
MV NODL has so far been tested on two return trips that are between the Lutoboka land site in Kalangala to the Nakiwogo land site in Entebbe. And the same tests have extended crossing some islands of Kitobo, Kacanga, and Jaana of Kalangala district.
MV NODL is operated by National Oil Distribution Ltd (NODL) which company is also responsible to operate MV Kalangala.
MV NODL is an exclusive vessel with classes of tourist/ passengers that range from silver, gold, and platinum and has a seating capacity of 120 passengers.
This vessel will enable cracking the traveler influx challenges which are mostly experienced during the festive seasons.
The vessel had to start operations by the time MV Kalangala was grounded for the serving work, but because of various challenges MV NODL operations were delayed.
The management of MV NODL is still in talks with the Ministry of Works and Transport to see if the vessel will be certified to extend its operations to other islands in Kalangala beyond Buggala since the vessel’s operating zones are not yet demarcated.
The management is also still in talks to reach in discussion on charges per class on a trip, and an estimate for tourist classes will range between Sh30,000-100,000. For silver will range from sh30,000 t0 sh50,000, gold 40,000 to 60,000 and platinum 70,000 to 100,000.
To date, Kalanga had only three major operating vessels connecting to Buggala Main Island, these vessels include MV Ssese, MV Pearl, and MV Kalangala, then the other private vessels are MV Vanessa and Nathalie.
Unlike MV Kalangala which carries heavy cargo and cars, MV NODL is designed for only passengers.
