Lower Berbice Bridge tolls from Jan. 1

Dec 20, 2015 News

…as stalemate ends
More than four months after Government announced the lowering of tolls for the Berbice Bridge, and amidst a stalemate, it appears that finally a deal has been reached.

The Berbice River Bridge Company is set to lower tolls from January 1.

According to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure yesterday, Minister David Patterson has reached an agreement with the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI) and will be signing a contract with the company in the coming week.
The agreement, which covers the provision of a Government subsidy to BBCI, will take effect from January 1, 2016, the ministry said in a statement.
The lowering of the tolls was announced in August by Finance Minister Winston Jordan, during the new government’s presentation of its first national budget since taking office in May.
The coalition, while campaigning for the elections, had promised to reduce tolls on the bridge which is partially owned by government.
The effective date was supposed to be from September 1, 2015, with the tolls for passenger cars and buses proposed to be slashed from $2,200 to $1,900, a 13.6 percent decline. At the same time, the toll for all other types of vehicles was to be reduced by 10 percent.
However, the bridge company resisted the move, seeking legal advice.
A December 1 date elapsed with no agreement reached.
Since November, the ministry had sent a draft proposal with the intentions to reach a December 1 deadline.
The draft agreement, in essence, said that the Government of Guyana would provide a $40M subvention to the bridge, in return for the reduction of tolls. In return, the bridge had to provide figures of vehicles traversing the structure. BBCI had asked the government for some extension so that it could discuss the implications of the proposals with their stakeholders.
In the interim, as the commuters awaited the reduced toll, the Government had implemented river taxis to ply the Rosignol to New Amsterdam route. Between September 21 and November 7, some 62,465 persons had used the boats. Of this, 11,623 were either students or the elderly.
Government has said that its efforts to reduce the Berbice Bridge toll is part of a plan to alleviate the burden of the high fare for the over 150,000 Guyanese who live within Regions Five and Six that traverse the bridge to access education and health services, conduct business, and travel on a daily basis.
In total, the river taxis conducted over 2,800 trips across the river between September 21 and November 7.
The bridge has been a sore issue for the former opposition and Berbicians who have been complaining about the tolls.
Built as a public/private partnership, the financing of the structure and how it ended up in the hands of a few private individuals with little say for Government, has seen the new administration moving to increase its shares and reduce the tolls.
The bridge’s management was controlled by New GPC, a company owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, a close friend of ex-President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Two of New GPC’s directors reportedly resigned during the standoff.
Government recently announced that it has moved to buy out the shares of Demerara Distillers Limited in the bridge company.
The bridge was commissioned in 2008.