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Bridging the Berbice River

Dec 23, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
Bridging of the Berbice River is one of the most invaluable projects executed and delivered for the people of Guyana. This is one of the structures that come at a time when direct stress was passed on to the general citizenship of Guyana and moreso to tourists when commuting to the region; no one knows the stress levels and loss in time incurred with the previous model, so the opposition should shut up and face the reality of opportunity time.
I am hoping the opposition knows that people time is valuable, and they realize how much is it really worth? The opposition must go back to the basics and try to analyze the stress about a delayed boat with a long line, is it possible to quantify—to put a concrete number on—the time being wasted? To say not just, “My time is valuable!” but “That’s US$250 of my time down the drain!”
It turns out the answer is yes. And to do so you only need to use one of the most basic principles of economics: opportunity cost, let the opposition do some work rather than them using the “empty barrel makes the most noise” concept.
The call for reduced tariff is not justifiable; they are comparing the Demerara Harbour Bridge tariff structure which is heavily subsidized by the Government with the Berbice Bridge which is fully self reliant. If the opposition is ready to offset the tariff differences for the reduction they are calling for, then they should sign onto to a MOU with the BBCI and proceed with their call, it is just politics that is emotionally driven.
It’s not too hard to see how crucial is time lost (the opposition should conduct a time and motion study on the Berbice crossing now with data from the ferrying model) and with time reduction that goes with increasing justification for increasing people’s social benefits. How much is an hour of your time worth?
The bridge roll on the ease of commuting, for the farmers, construction workers, tourists to name a few, and very important reduced time for life saving events, transporting medical cases to the public/private hospitals in Berbice and also to the national Referral Hospital in Georgetown.
We have to thank the many investors for coming on board with this project since, from an economic standpoint, social dimensions and environmental impacts, this bridge has closed the gaps within each dimension so translating all benefits to the people, and that is what this Government is all about, giving its general citizenship cause to develop themselves.    •
Why only the Berbice Bridge? The opposition has their personal vendetta against some of the direct private investors; this is not professional analysis from the opposition side, but, rather “an eye for an eye” game that will only see the entire of Guyana going blind.
I call on the opposition to work with the Government in parliament to ensure our country is taken off the blacklist with the passing of the money laundering and countering financing terrorism Bill — this is more important at this time.
This is what the private investors did with the Berbice Bridge, since the private sector has the bottom or the operating core of the country at heart, they made this investment possible so that the hardship of commuting to and from the region becomes a model to push Guyana forward, and this is what the outcomes is.
Michael H. Khan

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