The Airport Road Crisis – A National Embarrassment Demanding Immediate Government Action

Oct 15, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

I write this not merely as a concerned citizen, but as the collective voice of thousands who bear the burden of a crisis not of their making. The ongoing chaos along Guyana’s only main road to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport is more than a traffic nuisance it is a national disgrace that has sullied our country’s reputation and undermined public confidence.

For months, the traveling public has endured prolonged standstills, missed flights, and tremendous personal and economic losses. Airline crews and international passengers many visiting our shores for business or investment have been stranded for hours. The stories are spreading beyond our borders, painting Guyana not as a rising vision of modernity, but as a nation unable to provide reliable access to its own international gateway.

This is not an unavoidable misfortune. It is a manufactured crisis, the direct result of poor contractor planning, inept traffic management, and the absence of effective oversight from the Ministry of Public Works. These circumstances reflect a clear failure of vision in a government that declares it is building a first-world nation, yet permits its citizens to be treated as though their time, dignity, and welfare are expendable. President Ali, we note your public outrage at this situation. Yet outrage without decisive remedies offers little comfort to the people trapped in daily chaos. Years from now, few will remember the speeches, but all will remember the hardship.

We propose an immediate, pragmatic solution: leverage the Demerara River as an alternative transportation route. High-speed, large-capacity ferries—leased by the government—should operate between the old Demerara Harbour Bridge and the docks at Timehri, making designated stops along the river. Free parking facilities should be established, and existing large-capacity buses owned by the Army and government deployed to shuttle passengers from ferry wharves to their destinations.

Simultaneously, heavy trucks moving construction materials should be restricted from using the airport road during peak hours, with goods instead barged to points outside the active work zone. These steps would dramatically relieve congestion, allow contractors to work unhindered, and restore predictable access to our airport.

Let us be clear: this burden must not be financed by the people. The cost of implementing these urgent measures must be borne entirely by the government whose lack of foresight and managerial diligence created this crisis. Guyanese citizens should not have to pay again for the failures of those entrusted to serve them. Progress is not measured only in roads built or bridges opened, but in the preservation of the nation’s dignity and the respect shown to its people. Leadership demands the courage to acknowledge failure and the will to correct it with urgency and compassion. We call on this administration to act now—not next year, not next month with decisive measures that match the seriousness of this embarrassment. Our people deserve better. The world is watching.

Respectfully,

Regards

Hemdutt Kumar

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The Airport Road Crisis – A National Embarrassment Demanding Immediate Government Action

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