Berbice River Bridge opens in Guyana

Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and other officials along with hundreds of Berbice residents take a walk on the new 1.5 kilometre Berbice River Bridge which links the east and west of the country. It is the sixth longest floating bridge in the world.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, December 24, 2008 – A new US$40 million floating bridge linking the east and west of Guyana has opened up to the public with officials predicting that it will improve business between the two sides.

The Berbice River Bridge, which became accessible to light traffic from yesterday, will provide a faster option for people wanting to cross the country’s second longest river. Before yesterday, travel across the river was provided by a steamer service.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI), Geeta Singh-Knight assured that the structure will substantially improve the living standards of citizens, particularly those in Berbice.

“It will significantly improve economic growth and social development in Berbice. The bridge will open markets east of the river to entrepreneurs on the western side and vice versa,” she said.

The bridge had been previously scheduled to be completed by mid-2008 but the construction faced a number of delays.

As he commissioned the new structure, President Bharrat Jagdeo sought to explain why it was not completed earlier even though it had been on the agenda of his People’s Progressive Party (PPP) since 1992 when it won the elections.

He said his administration’s first priority after taking office was to restore credibility to the country’s finances, noting that investors would not have been interested in funding this or any other project in a country that was not financially stable.

President Jagdeo told the hundreds of officials and Berbice residents gathered that, with the bridge now complete, there is a need to further improve infrastructure across the country.

“We need to build more roads into the Intermediate Savannahs so we can bring those lands into production. Without the roads, it makes it hard for you to attract investment. We need to have a deep-water harbour – one that cuts the cost of freight – because even if you were to produce competitively, when you ship to other parts of the world, this country can only develop if it exports,” he said.

“We can’t drive the economy from internal demand. It can only be driven by satisfying external demand and, therefore, the cost of freight is a crucial variable in being competitive internationally, especially when you have bulk exports as we do.”

The Berbice River Bridge is a public-private-partnership project that has been supported by several investors including top commercial banks, major insurance companies and several corporate agencies.
The 1.5 kilometre structure, the sixth longest floating bridge in the world, stretches from D’Edward Village on the western bank of the Berbice River to Crab Island on the eastern side.

It will operate under a toll basis that officials said should generate sufficient revenue to cover all of its operating and maintenance costs while providing a return investment to its shareholders.