Ordinary Guyanese as well as the country’s business community will be keen to see the results of a US $ 12.7 million agreement between the governments of Guyana and India signed earlier this month for the design, construction and delivery of a passenger and cargo ship over the sea. for a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member country.
In the context of the long-standing challenges facing Guyana in the fields of inland travel and moving cargo to and from coastal locations, ordinary Guyanese as much as the business community will monitor progress towards realization ‘ this agreement. as well as the specific outcomes.
The signing involved an agreement between the local Department of Transport and Harbor at Georgetown and the Indian company, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), which is being undertaken by the Indian Ministry of Defense through a grant from the Government of India.
GRSE is a major Indian shipbuilding company administered by the country’s Ministry of Defense to cater to the Indian Coast Guard’s shipbuilding requirements. In addition to its shipbuilding and warship capabilities, GRSE also engages in engine production and other engineering activities.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of a weak transport system in the country, especially between the coastal region and the interior. Hopefully some of the large areas of the hinterland separated by river and forest expanses, when the new ferry is put in place, will hopefully improve the level of transport system efficiency, which could lead to has significant implications for the development of the internal regions of the country.
The new ferry, when introduced here, is likely to seek to directly address, raise standards associated with the movement of cargo, including essential food supplies to challenging interior locations as well as product movement from those locations to the coast. . In the context of the long-standing challenges from coastal inefficiency to hinterland transport, the new ferry could be a ‘win-win’ situation for the local private sector as well as for the social and economic improvement of the inner communities. the service will affect that.
Information revealed about the ship and its mission shows that it will “pave the north-west, south-west route up to Kwakwani in the Berbice River” and that it will be used “as a coastal vessel as well as a river service vessel. ” Under the terms of the contract, the Government of Guyana will have money at its disposal to equip the marine equipment that will serve the ship efficiently.
Time is of the essence for entering this long-awaited development although the beneficiaries are likely to have to wait at least a year, perhaps more, if there is a headline in the January 14 issue of the state-run state the state. Guyana Chronicle claims the new ferry could “sail in 2022,” anything to go by.
At the signing ceremony, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill seemed unable to resist infusing an element of parochial politics into the event, noting that, although, according to the Chronicle, the project was “already completed during Progressive Party / Civic People (PPP / Former C) in government ”the administration had returned to office following a five year hiatus to find that“ no contract was awarded and signed… no ferry was built, and the money is still available. ”
According to the Minister, the previous Government of A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU + AFC) had sought to award the contract to the highest bidder, and said, “it was not flying at procurement levels.”
Attempts to effectively address the issues of river transport here have been stymied by woefully unreliable schedules, maintenance challenges that have created long-haul shipping, and limitations to local servicing and repair capabilities that have meant the government reaching out to foreign companies for assistance. While all this has been happening, the country has had to face the multilateral consequences of the ongoing slowdown in communities affected by the lack of an efficient river transportation system.