Money earmarked, Takutu Bridge set to take off
Stabroek News
December 4, 2006
International birding tour operators on the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway recently. They were impressed with what they saw. (Photo courtesy the Guyana Trade and Investment Support project)
Brazil's Congress has given the go-ahead to the Brazilian Minister of Transportation to resume work on the Takutu Bridge with the sum of US$3 million earmarked to recommence works.
The go-ahead and the release of funds come five years after work on the bridge ceased and almost two years since Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva made a pledge in Guyana's parliament to have the bridge completed by last year end.
Brazil's Ambassador to Guyana, Arthur VC Meyer last week told Stabroek News by telephone that he was on Tuesday informed of the new development for which US$3 million or Rs$6 billion has been committed for works on the bridge for the current year.
In addition, he said that the budget for the next fiscal year is to be presented soon in the Congress.
Meyer said that "We can expect work to start very soon, possibly in January."
Arthur VC Meyer
According to information he received, Meyer said that the budget commission of the Brazilian National Congress only recently enacted legislation following an authorisation from the state accounting court authorising the Brazilian Minister of Trans-portation, Paulo Sergio Passos, to resume work on the bridge.
It is expected that the Brazilian army's engineering corps would be working on the bridge, in keeping with President Lula's promise to have the bridge completed. Once work begins it should be completed within an eight-month period.
Secretary-General of Brazil's Ministry of External Relations, Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes Neto had also given the assurance on a visit to Guyana last year that the traditional army engineering battalion has built many roads and bridges in Brazil and were highly qualified people with long experience in construction on these types of projects.
Work on the bridge stopped in 2001 as a result of financial irregularities, which the Brazilian courts had to resolve. The Brazilian general accounting court was required to give the Minister of Transportation approval to continue the work.
During Lula's visit he had said he was very aware of the importance of the bridge for Guyana and the northern states of Brazil, particularly the land-locked state of Roraima.
He had also said he would visit Guyana for the commissioning of the bridge linking the two countries across the Takutu River.
Since his visit, there had been several announcements that work would have restarted but to no avail. The conclusion of the bridge should facilitate the movement of people and an increase in trade between the two countries.
It is also expected that once the bridge is completed Guyana and Brazil would also be focusing on the construction of the roads to improve the connections between the two countries. It is expected that with the construction of the bridge and improved roads between Mabura and Lethem there would be a direct connection between Georgetown and Boa Vista.
Meanwhile, GINA in a release issued on Thursday said that Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn is expected to take part in the meeting of the Executive Steering Committee (CDE) of the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) to be held in Quito, Ecuador, South America on December 13 and 14.
The Takutu Bridge is one of 335 projects identified by IIRSA - which is part of an initiative of South American governments to construct a new infrastructural network for the continent. The network includes roads, bridges, waterways, ports and energy and communications interconnections. (Miranda La Rose)