Govt. paying millions to maintain road that Chinese companies destroying

Dec 10, 2021 News

---

– residents demand that they pay to fix it

Kaieteur News –  has learnt that the government is spending millions to repair and maintain the Port Kaituma to Matthews Ridge Road in Region One, which is constantly being destroyed by two Chinese companies working in the district.

Those companies are the Guyana Manganese Inc (GMI), a 100% owned subsidiary of Bosai Minerals Group Co. Ltd and Barama Company Limited (BCL).
GMI is mining for manganese at Matthews Ridge, while BCL is conducting small scale logging closer to Port Kaituma and, according to residents, the two companies have been responsible for the frequent destruction of the major road linking the two communities.
In a recent trip this media house made to the area, it got a firsthand look of the current condition of the road, and it was evident that there was need for emergency works in some sections.
Surprisingly, however, the two companies blamed for damaging the road with heavy duty machines and trucks, rarely conduct any repairs whatsoever.
At least, this was what Port Kaituma residents related to Kaieteur News during its trip there.
They said that most of the remedial work is being done by a local company called International Import and Supplies.
Kaieteur News was told by the relevant authorities that the government reportedly awarded the local company a multimillion dollar contract to rehabilitate and maintain sections of the road.
This newspaper contacted a governmental official yesterday to find out the exact cost of the road maintenance contract, but the individual is presently out of the country, and has promised to provide the information in the coming week.
Nevertheless, the local residents are of the view that the contract arrangement is unfair because local commuters, such as taxi drivers, bus drivers, and miners would normally have to pay a toll to use the major road, while the Chinese companies are the ones responsible for most of its damage.

During a three-hour long journey on a bumpy road, from Port Kaituma to Matthews Ridge, a local cab driver related that he has to pay $2000 every time he makes a trip with his car.
He added that buses are charged $5000, canters $12,000, heavy duty trucks $50,000 and excavators $75,000. He was unsure if company trucks are required to pay too.
As a result, Kaieteur News decided to find out from officials of the Port Kaituma/ Matthews Ridge Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and was told that GMI and BCL are not required to pay any toll for their trucks.
The officials explained that the companies are exempted from the toll fee, because of a special arrangement they have with the government.
Moreover, they continued, the toll monies collected are not used to fix the major road, but rather the internal streets and roads in the Port Kaituma and Mathews Ridge community.
Kaieteur News, however, noted that the streets within the communities are even worse than the major road.

As it relates to the special arrangement that the two foreign companies have with the government, the NDC Chairman, Orlando Thorne, related that “GMI agreed to assist in maintaining Port Kaituma to Matthews Ridge from time to time”.
However, according to residents, the company rarely adheres to the agreement and would only act when it is forced.
The residents related that they are fed-up and have demanded that, if the company does not want to keep its end of the bargain, it must then pay like the locals.
In fact, due to the current state of the road, residents three days ago attempted to stop the companies’ trucks from passing the toll gate located at Four Mile Port Kaituma.
One of the NDC employees working at the toll gate related that residents told the drivers to inform their bosses that they must pay or fix the road.
The individual continued that when the drivers tried to force their way through by echoing the line “special arrangement”, the residents threatened to report them to the police.
The NDC chairman, Thorne, was reportedly forced to keep a meeting with GMI to remind the company of its obligations.
Thorne told Kaieteur News that he met with representatives of GMI and the local contractor responsible for maintaining the road, International Import and Supplies, on Wednesday and both companies have committed to conducting emergency works at badly damaged sections located at Fallstop and Big Creek.
He noted that GMI has already started removing slush from the road that has been causing vehicles to “stick up”.
Due to current rainy weather, Thorne further explained, the companies are unable to conduct any major repairs and have pleaded with angry residents to be patient.
GMI has been operating in the Region One community since 2018, however, according to one of its officials, the company has only recently started to extract manganese, because it had spent a lot of time constructing the mine.
Trucks would transport the manganese from its processing plant at Matthews Ridge to a storage pit located at 26 Miles along the major road.
When the pile is high the manganese would then be loaded onto trucks and transported to a landing at Oronouque, Port Kaituma.
Tugs located there will then transport it on a barge from Port Kaituma to be shipped out of Guyana.
To date Guyana has been in the dark about the deal the government has signed with the Chinese company to extract its manganese.

 

---

---