Older news story on a new border crossing
GY-BZ:
Subject: Guyanese to be employed on Takutu bridge
Date sent: Mon, 3 Sep
2001 13:15:57 -0300
Sunday Stabroek 2001/09/02
About 30 Guyanese to be
employed on Takutu bridge
Work has started on the Takutu bridge which will
connect Brazil to Guyana
and the company will be employing around 30 Guyanese
on the project.
According to Paul Celestino, a manager for the contracting
company Queiroz
Galvao, which is also constructing a bridge across the nearby
Arraia
river, some 100 unskilled and skilled workers will be involved in
the
project and an agreement has been reached for a minimum of 30 per cent
of
these to be Guyanese. In addition, the catering company supplying
the
workers will be purchasing 50 per cent of its beef from the
Rupununi
Development Association. Guyana Action Party (GAP) Member of
Parliament
for Region Nine, Shirley Melville, told this newspaper last week
that it
was the Regional Democratic Council's intention to get as many
benefits
from the construction of the bridge as possible. She said a
broad-based
committee had been formed to evaluate applications for jobs. A
number of
Guyanese residing in the state of Roraima are already working on
the
project. Construction on the Guyana side of the river is awaiting
an
official letter of authorization from the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian company is already establishing the
concrete
foundations on that side. Last week a team from the Ministry of
Public
Works and Communications headed by technical adviser, Walter
Willis,
visited the site and met the Brazilian engineers involved in
the
construction. A liaison and advisory Takutu bridge committee was formed
in
Lethem and Melville was elected as chairperson. The committee
also
comprises one representative from the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce
and
Industry, one from the Customs department, three from the
Regional
Democratic Council, three from the security forces, one from the
Lands and
Surveys Commission, one from the Neighbourhood Democratic Council
and one
from civil society. Included in the terms of reference of the
committee is
to collaborate with central government and other agencies on
behalf of the
people of Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) to keep
them informed
of all activities pertaining to the bridge. The committee will
also
monitor and evaluate the progress of the construction of the
bridge.
Melville pointed out to Stabroek News yesterday that Region Nine
would be
the first area the bridge would have some socio-economic impact upon
so it
was their duty "as citizens of Guyana to be informed of what was going
on
and have open communication with central government." Melville said
the
formation of the committee had the blessing of Minister of Transport
and
Hydraulics, Anthony Xavier, whose ministry was playing a key part in
the
construction of the bridge. The 10 million reas (US$4 million) bridge
is
230 metres long and 14 metres wide. The design includes a
unique
cross-over on the Guyana side where one lane will go under the other,
thus
automatically switching the traffic from the left-hand side on
which
Guyanese vehicles drive to the Brazilian right-hand side. GAP leader
Paul
Hardy, who is working as an intermediary between the Guyana government
and
the Brazilian authorities said the bridge of itself was not
significant,
but rather it was the quality of road to the coast which would
be the key
to the success of the Guyana-Brazil link. The road from the border
to Boa
Vista is fully paved and in his talks with Brazilian authorities, he
said,
they expected nothing less on the Guyana side. At present there are
large
potholes in the dirt road immediately as one leaves the bank of
the
Takutu. While the Brazilians already have in place customs and
immigration
buildings, Guyana's customs officials operate out of a hotel in
Lethem and
immigration personnel work at the airport with just a table and
chair in a
run-down building. The bridge is expected to be completed in late
July,
2002 and many residents in Lethem are concerned that the
required
infrastructure will not be in place in time. Hardy stressed the
importance
of appointing a consul, preferably a career diplomat, to work out
of Boa
Vista as the establishment of the road will generate a number
of
commercial issues. He said the northern states of Brazil were seeing
the
road link as vital to their economic development in the coming years as
it
would give them access not only to the Atlantic and export markets
but
also to the eastern Brazilian states overland. Melville said fears of
an
influx of Brazilians to the Lethem region were unfounded. "They
have
everything they need there." It was time Guyanese stopped
stereotyping
Brazilians as a bunch of garimperos instead of hardworking
citizens of a
highly developed country, she said. Hardy concurred, adding
that many
Georgetown-based Guyanese needed to overcome their suspicions and
fears
about the Brazilian intentions in pushing for the road. (Back to
top)