Port and Maritime Affairs launches new portal to optimise service delivery

The Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications has launched an online portal that will cater to services offered by the Port and Maritime Affairs.

The portal ‘Marasi’ offers the issuance and renewal of commercial activity licenses, renewal of private and water taxi licences; the management of daily ship movement, completion of private jetty handling charges, in addition to the ship registry portal accessible online 24/7. Talal Al Alawi, Chief Commercial Affair at the ministry said the online service is expected to save a huge amount of time for the customers who no longer need to visit the ministry offices.

“The number of people who comes to our office is really huge. We have people coming here for goods and services, importing building materials, ship movements licensing etc. “People coming here for various works need to produce a lot of papers from the Health Ministry, Customs Department etc. So we decided to develop the Marasi system, which is a fully automated system where our customers can sit at their desks and renew their licenses, clear items and make payments through this portal, which is 24/7. “Previously, we were serving our customers five days a week and eight hours a day, but now with the launching of this portal, it will be available every day at all hours.”