MINISTER of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, said that there are international expressions of interest in the development of the Linden to Lethem Road and the government remains committed to making its plans a reality.

“There are a few expressions of interest from companies in China, Brazil and elsewhere [to develop the road] from Kurupukari to Annai; from Annai down to Lethem,” Trotman told media operatives on the sidelines of a press briefing on Wednesday.

However, he noted that this aspect of the project is not yet off the ground. “We do have some proposals but I don’t believe that we’re in the stage yet of qualifying or quantifying who will do what. We have to have open tenders and so forth but there’s no shortage of interest to get that work done,” he said.

The government is in favour of public-private partnership ventures to fund the construction of parts of the road. Back in 2017, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, had said that Guyana and Brazil will be working closely with China to access a US$50B China Select Fund to help construct the road. At the time he was speaking after the Guyana Government signed two agreements with Brazil, one of which dealt with the road link.

For decades, both Guyana and Brazil envisaged a route through Guyana, which will provide better development prospects for investors to come from the Caribbean into Brazil and from Brazil into the Caribbean. This is something that has been long discussed and in fact, in some parts of the Rupununi, roads were actually aligned but we never had funding to complete it.

Greenidge had explained that he and Minister of Public Infrastructure, Mr. David Patterson, had met with their respective counterparts in Brazil to discuss moving the project forward.

At that forum, it was agreed that both countries will provide financial resources for the engineering and design of the road. “The engineer and design probably would cost somewhere in the region of $5M to $10M, between the two countries and with another partner, probably one of the multilaterals, we will close that financial package for that design…Guyana has been speaking about it for ages; the funding of the road clearly is a challenge to both countries. Guyana is very small, so this is a big burden in terms of the financing costs. In order to conclude financing of such a project, you have to have all the technical aspects completed. The engineering design is one of the last aspects of the technical side to be completed,” Greenidge disclosed then.

He also informed that the two countries will be working closely with the People’s Republic of China to access the $50B China Select Fund to complete the road. Greenidge had explained that this road link is a critical piece of infrastructure that holds great potential in terms of integrating the two countries and improving trade.

Rainy season
In the meanwhile, Trotman said that portions of the Lethem road affected by the rainy season are being monitored by the government and its agencies. “About a week and a half to two weeks ago the road developed some serious challenges; there were some trucks that were parked. We’ve since been able to get traffic moving again using some sand but have to all recognised that this is the rainy season. It’s not a paved road with bitumen or concrete so it’s more of a matter for regulation,” the Minster explained.

To meet the challenge, he has also requested that the Commissioner of Forest meet with logging companies to discuss the regulation of the movement of logging trucks to ensure the road is accessible for passage 24/7.