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6,000 vehicles and 18,000 passengers have entered Guyana to date
The Takutu River Bridge
Since its opening last September, the Takutu Bridge linking Lethem and Brazil has seen over 6,000 vehicles entering Guyana from that country.
Additionally, over 18,000 passengers travelled across the bridge, says Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh. The disclosures came Monday during the Minister’s delivery of the Budget 2010 presentation in Parliament.
Singh noted that the Lethem community continued to undergo rapid transformational changes in recent times since the opening of the bridge late last year.
At that time also a $38M multi-purpose facility was opened in Lethem to house Customs, Immigration, security, health and agriculture departments.
With the frontier providing abundant opportunities for improved trade and economic relations between the two countries, the introduction of a special border regime resulted in benefits for traders and visitors alike. This includes duty free access for certain categories of goods, waiver of the passport requirements for Guyanese and Brazilians wanting to visit the border towns of both countries, and the allowance of taxis to drive across both sides to established barriers on either sides.
The Takutu bridge, which connects Lethem and the south east of Guyana, to the northern Brazilian state of Roraima, was officially commissioned on September 14 last with great fanfare by the Heads of State of the two respective countries, Bharrat Jagdeo and the Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.
Construction of the Takutu bridge intensified in April 2007 after a six-year delay. Back in February 2005 the Brazilian President made a pledge in Guyana’s parliament to have the bridge completed by the end of the same year.
During his visit to Guyana he had said he was very aware of the importance of the bridge for Guyana and the northern states of Brazil, particularly the land-locked state of Roraima and he had indicated that he would visit Guyana for the commissioning of the bridge linking the two countries across the Takutu River.
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