COMMUTERS using the Berbice River Bridge would pay less as of next month, Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson informed the media yesterday. He said that government will soon be sending to the Berbice Bridge Company Inc., (BBCI) the agreement that will be signed between the two parties.
Provided there is no further stalemate, Minister Patterson said government expects the bridge company to accept and start implementing, as of December 1, 2015, its proposed $40M subvention towards reduction of the toll.
This agreement caters for the toll for passenger cars and buses to be reduced from $2,200 to $1,900, a 13.6 percent decline, whilst the toll for all other types of vehicles will be reduced by 10 percent.
The measure, which was outlined in Budget 2015, was expected to be implemented from September 1, 2015, but was not done due to the fact that negotiations between the government and BCCI remained deadlocked. The latter had asked the government for some extension, so that they could discuss the implications of the proposals with their stakeholders.
In the interim, as commuters awaited the reduced toll, the government had implemented river taxis to ply the Rosignol to New Amsterdam route. To date over 62,000 people have used the boats. He said of this total, 11,623 were either students or the elderly, but the majority were regular commuters from New Amsterdam.
Below are the figures of passenger movement:

Description Sept. 21 – Sept. 30 Oct. 1 – Oct. 31 Nov. 1 – Nov.7 TOTAL Adults 7,727 35,399 8,735 51,861 Children/Pensioners 2,114 7,620 1,889 11,623 Total Passengers 9,841 42,000 10,624 62,465 Number of trips 487 1,906 474 2,867
Government’s efforts to reduce the Berbice bridge toll is part of its effort to alleviate the burden of the high fare for the over 150,000 Guyanese who live within Regions 5 and 6 that traverse the bridge to access education and health services, conduct business and travel on a daily basis.