Berbice drivers slam ridiculous toll hike

Oct 19, 2018 News

Number 56 Bus park

The increase of tolls for the Berbice River Bridge is not sitting well with drivers. According to some of them, it is “absolutely ridiculous”.
Drivers from the Number 56 route who traverse from Stelling Road, New Amsterdam to West Coast Berbice said that such a hike will be a strain on their daily living.
Head of the Number 56 Bus Association, Dennis Chesney, opined that more thieves will roam the streets “because all these families that got a family to maintain, where we gon find the money from? Where we working here now, when the day done sometimes we does mek $7000 to take home and people that working other people bus does carry home $3000.
“Now when you gotta charge people, you gotta charge them about a $1000 to come across the bridge to clear the expense for a trip, so tell me when you gotta pay $8000 and you gotta clear gas and so what you gon charge the people?”
Nadira Sarswattie, one of the very few female drivers in Berbice, said that such an increase will affect her tremendously. She explained, “People does ask back for dem $20. Three passenger for $260 each, when dem give you $800 dem does ask back for dem $20”.
She questioned, “If people complaining for $20 how you think dem gon behave with this increase?”
Another driver said that he has four children to maintain and is working four days a week, as a result of a rotating system set out by the bus association to allow all bus operators to earn. He averages $5000 a trip but with the revised toll it is unlikely that he will earn that much, he said.
Khemraj Persaud said he has been a bus operator for nine years but when he heard of the announcement yesterday he was left to ponder his next move. He had already deduced that working the route would not be feasible.

Nadira Sarswattie

“This is the only work I have since the bridge open. You wouldn’t get the number of people to travel because dem na go afford to travel. Right now $260 is the fare and some people na even get the $260 to cross the bridge”.
He said, “The toll is absolutely ridiculous”.
A hire car driver, Dwayne Cort working the New Amsterdam to Georgetown route said he has to provide financial support to his two children. After hearing of the increase he said he calculated that he would have to find $81,000 a month to pay the crossing for the bridge. “If you mek one trip per day you ain’t really making nothing. Most likely you does two trip alone per day. I gon can’t continue this route if that price stay”.
The increase was announced following the absence of an agreement between the BBCI and the Government of Guyana on the way forward. On Thursday Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson met with the directors of BBCI to follow up on the toll adjustments request.
This, the management of the bridge said, was in accordance with the Berbice Bridge Act 2006. The Minister refused to accept the request made for the toll increase and instead proposed that the government take responsibility for servicing the bridge pontoons.
According to BBCI, that proposal was not within the contractual agreements that exist with the concession agreement and “is in breach of our agreement”.

President of the Number 56 Bus Association

President of the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce, Poonai Bhigroog, said he was wondering if “it was April Fool’s day” since the increase is “ridiculous”. He added that with the current state of the Berbice economy “this is the final nail in the coffin”.
Bhigroog stressed that what was announced is unrealistic and the main ingredient for “automatic inflation”. He added that the chamber will be releasing a statement on the increase.
The Berbice River Bridge saw an investment of $9.1 Billion from public and private sector combined. BBCI said that they wrote the Ministry on July 9th, 2018 requesting the implementation of a toll adjustment. They disclosed that the company is currently running at a loss of $2.8 Billion with no dividends paid to its shareholders.

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