Work has started on the Takutu bridge which will connect Brazil to Guyana and the company will be employing around 30 Guyanese on the project.

According to Paul Celestino, a manager for the contracting company Queiroz Galvao, which is also constructing a bridge across the nearby Arraia river, some 100 unskilled and skilled workers will be involved in the project and an agreement has been reached for a minimum of 30 per cent of these to be Guyanese. In addition, the catering company supplying the workers will be purchasing 50 per cent of its beef from the Rupununi Development Association.

Guyana Action Party (GAP) Member of Parliament for Region Nine, Shirley Melville, told this newspaper last week that it was the Regional Democratic Council's intention to get as many benefits from the construction of the bridge as possible. She said a broad-based committee had been formed to evaluate applications for jobs. A number of Guyanese residing in the state of Roraima are already working on the project.

Construction on the Guyana side of the river is awaiting an official letter of authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, the Brazilian company is already establishing the concrete foundations on that side.

Last week a team from the Ministry of Public Works and Communications headed by technical adviser, Walter Willis, visited the site and met the Brazilian engineers involved in the construction.

A liaison and advisory Takutu bridge committee was formed in Lethem and Melville was elected as chairperson.

The committee also comprises one representative from the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one from the Customs department, three from the Regional Democratic Council, three from the security forces, one from the Lands and Surveys Commission, one from the Neighbourhood Democratic Council and one from civil society.

Included in the terms of reference of the committee is to collaborate with central government and other agencies on behalf of the people of Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo) to keep them informed of all activities pertaining to the bridge. The committee will also monitor and evaluate the progress of the construction of the bridge.

Melville pointed out to Stabroek News yesterday that Region Nine would be the first area the bridge would have some socio-economic impact upon so it was their duty "as citizens of Guyana to be informed of what was going on and have open communication with central government."

Melville said the formation of the committee had the blessing of Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Anthony Xavier, whose ministry was playing a key part in the construction of the bridge.

The 10 million reas (US$4 million) bridge is 230 metres long and 14 metres wide. The design includes a unique cross-over on the Guyana side where one lane will go under the other, thus automatically switching the traffic from the left-hand side on which Guyanese vehicles drive to the Brazilian right-hand side.

GAP leader Paul Hardy, who is working as an intermediary between the Guyana government and the Brazilian authorities said the bridge of itself was not significant, but rather it was the quality of road to the coast which would be the key to the success of the Guyana-Brazil link. The road from the border to Boa Vista is fully paved and in his talks with Brazilian authorities, he said, they expected nothing less on the Guyana side. At present there are large potholes in the dirt road immediately as one leaves the bank of the Takutu. While the Brazilians already have in place customs and immigration buildings, Guyana's customs officials operate out of a hotel in Lethem and immigration personnel work at the airport with just a table and chair in a run-down building. The bridge is expected to be completed in late July, 2002 and many residents in Lethem are concerned that the required infrastructure will not be in place in time.

Hardy stressed the importance of appointing a consul, preferably a career diplomat, to work out of Boa Vista as the establishment of the road will generate a number of commercial issues. He said the northern states of Brazil were seeing the road link as vital to their economic development in the coming years as it would give them access not only to the Atlantic and export markets but also to the eastern Brazilian states overland.

Melville said fears of an influx of Brazilians to the Lethem region were unfounded. "They have everything they need there." It was time Guyanese stopped stereotyping Brazilians as a bunch of garimperos instead of hardworking citizens of a highly developed country, she said.

Hardy concurred, adding that many Georgetown-based Guyanese needed to overcome their suspicions and fears about the Brazilian intentions in pushing for the road.