GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana's government says it will participate in a regional ferry service that would link the country with Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
President Irfaan Ali, government ministers and other officials turn the sod for the new US$35 million Mackenzie/ Wismar Bridge“Yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Barbados formed a joint company that would work for the introduction of a ferry system for passenger and cargo between Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados,” President Irfaan Ali announced as the signing ceremony for a new US$35 million Mackenzie/ Wismar Bridge in Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice) to be constructed by the China Railway Construction Corporation.
Ali gave no further details regarding the ferry service even as regional countries have identified both sea and air transportation as a major constraint facing the regional integration movement, CARICOM that has set itself a target of reducing its multi-billion US dollar food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
In 2022, the CARICOM approached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for funding to establish this intra-regional ferry service with the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) being tasked with ironing out a proposed roadmap study for a fast ferry service with an initial focus on trade between Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and Barbados.
Meanwhile, Ali said the new four lane highway being undertaken by the Chinese company that is also constructing the new GUY$260 million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) crossing over the Demerara River to bridge Regions Three and Four, must be completed within a two year time frame in order to support the increased number of vehicular crossings in the mining town of Linden.
He said there were n estimated 768,000 vehicular crossings over the existing bridge in 2020 and that last year, that figure almost doubled with crossings increasing to about 1.5 million.
Ali said the new Mackenzie Wismar Bridge will be a crucial link connecting Guyana’s coast and the hinterland and will position Region 10 as a new hub for engineering, logistics and trading with increased traffic coming from the South, as far as Brazil.
