Highway to Brazil

Last week, the Government of Guyana announced grandly: “Construction of the Linden-Lethem road is closer, following the signing of a Complementary Agreement to the Memorandum of Understanding between Guyana and Brazil which created the “Guyana-Brazil Joint Commission to Develop Infrastructure Projects”.
Guyanese have heard about a highway to Brazil being built for so long, its origins have been shrouded in the mists of antiquity. There was, of course, the “cow trail” that had been hacked from the Rupununi to Georgetown in the early decades of the last century, to bring “beef on the hoof” to the coastal markets. Leading a delegation to Brazil in the 1970s, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham raised the possibility of Brazil becoming involved in the highway. Nothing came out of it by the time the PNC departed in 1992.
The win-win scenario for both countries, however, was always clear. For Brazil, the highway would have to culminate with a deep-water harbour on the Atlantic, which would then offer them a faster route to North America and Europe for their industrial goods produced in the city of Manaus, deep in the heart of the Amazon. As it is, the goods take at least weeks to move by river to the eastern Brazilian port of Belem: this would be reduced to a matter of two days to a Guyanese Atlantic port. For Guyana, in addition to earning transit and port charges, northern Brazil would be open to Guyanese exports such as rice and sugar etc. Most importantly, this highway would open up Guyana’s interior for development.
With that long history, by 2013, the IDB, while conducting a feasibility study on a “Guyana-Brazil Land Transport Link and Deep-Water Port Project”, at the cost of US$1 million, noted:
“The improvement of the Linden-Lethem road has been the subject of intermittent discussion and study over many years. The following studies are the most relevant: 1989 TecnEcon-Gibb Feasibility Study, funded by the European Union; 1995 Environmental and Social Impact Report, funded by the World Bank; 2000 ADK-Gibb Feasibility Study, funded by the European Union; 2006 GOPA Transport Sector Strategy Study, funded by the European Union; 2008 Mott MacDonald-CEMCO Pre-Feasibility Study, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank; 2012 SNC Lavalin: Feasibility Study funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.”
In 2003, on a visit to Brazil, President Bharrat Jagdeo and President Lula of Brazil had initiated feasibility studies on what was called the “Guyana-State of Roraima integration project”. This involved the construction of a highway linking Georgetown and Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima; the construction of a deep water harbour; a hydro-electricity facility in Guyana; and the development of an industrial area in Boa Vista. The Takutu Bridge across the river of the same name was completed in 2009, and was supposed to be the first phase connecting Boa Vista with Lethem. Jagdeo’s successor, President Donald Ramotar, and Lula’s successor had approved plans for the remainder of the project by the time they demitted office in 2015 and 2016.
Subsequently, the new APNU/AFC Government continued the studies. Earlier this year, it earmarked an 80-mile section of the road, stretching from Linden to Mabura Hill, for rehabilitation. The project is being funded by the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund (UKCIF) and is being administered by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). A bridge is also planned to replace the pontoon crossing at Kurupukari, and provide 24-hour access over the river. The CDB awarded a grant of G$1.06 million to fund a feasibility study for the project, which has been handed over to the Government of Guyana.
Thus the Government will have to be a bit more specific about what exactly it is negotiating with Brazil: the entire road from Lethem to the Coast with a Deep Water Harbour, or the portion from Mabura to Lethem, with Brazilian goods to be shipped from the clogged Port Georgetown?
It is also hoped that there would be no more “feasibility studies”.