{"id":54958,"date":"2025-12-23T12:51:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T23:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=54958"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T23:51:54","slug":"new-21-5-million-inter-island-ferry-delayed-for-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=54958","title":{"rendered":"New $21.5 Million Inter-Island Ferry Delayed for Safety Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Apia, Samoa \u2013 23 December 2025 \u2013<\/strong> A double-hull catamaran designed passenger vessel intended for the Mulifanua-Saleolologa strait has been delayed further due to safety and security concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Negotiated by the former Minister of Works, Transport and Infrastructure (MWTI) Olo Afoa Fiti Va\u2019ai, the ferry was expected to be in service in mid-year 2025.<\/p>\n<p>However, Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Polataivao Fosi Schmidt told the media that the vessel has been further delayed due to safety concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be a first double hull catamaran design passenger vessel intended for the strait, which as regular travellers know, can be very rough at times,\u201d said the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n<p>He also said the boats size and design could also have issues with the depth of the wharves Mulifanua and Salelologa and its mooring in providing service for the travelling public.<\/p>\n<p>The vessel is a Ro-Ro\/Passenger Ship with a length overall (LOA) of 56.64 meters and her width is 12 meters and was to be funded by the Samoa Ports Authority (SPA) at $7.8 million USD or approximately $21.5 million Samoan Tala.<\/p>\n<p>According to Olo, the vessel will take 30 to 35 minutes to travel between the islands, \u201cand if this gets the go-ahead\u201d the Minister says there are plans to refit the vessel to cater to 1000 or more passengers.<\/p>\n<p>The vessel\u2019s home port is Wallaroo Australia. It was built by Nanindah Mutiara Shipyard \u2013 Batam, Indonesia in 2011 and is owned by Islands Transport Holdings \u2013 Gold Coast.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apia, Samoa \u2013 23 December 2025 \u2013 A double-hull catamaran designed passenger vessel intended for the Mulifanua-Saleolologa strait has been delayed further due to safety and security concerns. Negotiated by the former Minister of Works, Transport and Infrastructure (MWTI) Olo Afoa Fiti Va\u2019ai, the ferry was expected to be in service in mid-year 2025. However, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":54959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[186,192],"tags":[6118,59,6117,6116],"class_list":["post-54958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-maritime-shipping","tag-delayed-due-to-safety-reasons","tag-featured","tag-mulifanua-salelologa-strip","tag-new-catamaran-passenger-ferry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New $21.5 Million Inter-Island Ferry Delayed for Safety Concerns - Talamua Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=54958\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New $21.5 Million Inter-Island Ferry Delayed for Safety Concerns - Talamua Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Apia, Samoa \u2013 23 December 2025 \u2013 A double-hull catamaran designed passenger vessel intended for the Mulifanua-Saleolologa strait has been delayed further due to safety and security concerns. 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