Proposal to hike Berbice Bridge toll is ridiculous

Jul 15, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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This month the Demerara Harbour Bridge is observing its 40th year in service to this nation. When it was commissioned in 1978 by a very excited Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and his opposite number Dr. Cheddi Jagan, they were all fully aware of the significance of this bridge over the Demerara River.
They knew even then what it would mean for national development; to the citizens living on the ‘West Side’; to farmers, businessmen and women; the workers who labour in the city; loggers and gold miners working in the interior; residents of Bartica, Essequibo and the hinterland regions; the people who work every day to protect our forests and their biodiversity; students attending school in the city; and to emergency services like fire, ambulance and police.
This piece of infrastructure was built to last 10 years, but today, nearly 50 years later, it is even more indispensable than it started out to be. Its value to national life cannot be overstated, therefore, it makes all the sense in the world to keep it operational, even after the new one is commissioned. The amount of traffic from every single community, district, gold field or logging concession west of the Demerara River has increased so dramatically over the years that it just makes sense.
The Demerara Harbour Bridge toll has been subsidized by government from the time it was commissioned, but the bridge administration never ran broke, and the people who cross sometimes six times a day are still able to pay it.
Several times since July 1978, portions of the bridge, especially the flotation pontoons and the retractor span, have malfunctioned, broken or collapsed mostly due to accidents caused by barges, ocean-going vessels, and serious vehicular accidents. Every time, engineers have had the repairs done and they re-opened the bridge after short periods to return the passengers’ lives to normal.
Fast forward now to the Berbice River Bridge that Jagdeo built. Like the one across the Demerara River, that bridge plays a similar role to its City cousin, creating easy access to Upper and Lower Corentyne, New Amsterdam and its environs, East Bank and West Berbice, and it allows people to reach neighbouring Suriname and French Guiana without the hassle of waiting hours for an unreliable ferry service to and from Rosignol.
The big problem over the Bridge is that Jagdeo and the group of disparate friends and entities that he had cobbled together to help fund its construction and to manage it through the Berbice Bridge Company Inc. (BBCI), have now reached a new low. They are now irresponsible enough to demand increases to the toll that the same Government had negotiated to cut just three years ago. This was in response to the constant complaints and cries of the people in Berbice to remove the draconian tolls that the PPP had imposed on them in 2008.
Do you recall how they managed? Many Berbicians had to leave their vehicles at the homes of friends and family at D’Edward Village, Number 7 and Number 2 Villages, Canje or Adelphi at the other end of the bridge, then catch minibuses to cross. All this was to avoid paying thousands of dollars to travel a mere 1.2 miles over the bridge.
Now the bridge company wants the government to restore the old rates. Forget the part about making profits. This is extortion of Guyanese people and of the visitors who enter Guyana by way of the Canawaima ferry at Moleson Creek.
This Berbice Bridge Company and the PPP even had the temerity to demand that Government pay the difference of the costs that were reduced from the original toll in 2015. Jagdeo took it further and ‘suggested’ that government should buy a bigger portion of the bridge shares, or subsidize operating costs. But this is vintage Jagdeo, the man who had bullied the NIS, the New Building Society and other public agencies to join his friends to invest in the bridge in exchange for large blocks of shares.
Some of those who capitulated, found out later that the shares were coated with so much offal that they were guaranteed no returns whatsoever. Those who refused had their lives and reputations destroyed, literally.
Thankfully, Guyanese people have matured in the recent past, and we are able to see right through Jagdeo’s posturing. Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, has made it clear that the Berbice Bridge ‘arrangements’ that the PPP had put in place are not sustainable or wholesome. All are in agreement that the only beneficiaries would be the private investors.
The Ministry of Finance had described the whole mess as ‘One of those mumbo-jumbo contracts”. Minister Patterson stated, “I don’t see how, with a US$40M investment, you would only guarantee a certain group of people a 23% rate of return,” then predict that an unrealistic number of vehicles would be crossing the bridge, and if not, then the Government would be obligated to pay the 300% increase to the Bridge company.
Minister Patterson is a nice man. He said, “It’s definitely not sustainable”. To others, it is junk economics with messy forecasts. This Government has no intention of hiking rates simply to please any money-grabbers, and it is most unfair to users of the bridge
Last year, one of Guyana’s expert Engineers, Bert Carter, had said that the BBCI has already paid out over $800M in dividends. So, who did that sum go to? The BBCI has done no maintenance on the bridge for the almost 10 years it has been in existence.
No one should be required to pay so much money for a one-mile bridge crossing. It’s ridiculous! End of story.

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