Retired T&HD Captain says Berbice River Bridge tolls too high
A former Ferry Captain employed with the Transport & Harbours Department (T&HD) has complained about the high tolls commuters are being made to pay for using the Berbice River Bridge (BRB).
Maheshwar Sugrim retired from T&HD as Captain of the MV Makouria and Torani several years ago and knows a lot about the inner workings of the company, even its financial position and how the financial targets were being surpassed each month.
In an interview with this newspaper Sugrim revealed that prior to the opening of the Berbice River Bridge, millions of dollars were being made each month by the T&HD and the new bridge has put a dent into the coffers of the entity.
Today, he is quite disturbed about the huge sums of money that Berbicians and the rest of Guyana are being asked to pay for tolls to cross the BRB.
Sugrim joined T&HD in 1991 as a Captain.
The fare for a car crossing the New Amsterdam to Rosignol Ferry was $200 and $20 per passenger. When fuel prices started to get higher, the company was forced to raise the fees to $500 per car and $40 per passenger.
“Transport used to give us a target to make at $19M a month, and the rest, we does get an incentive-a bonus.”
Sugrim revealed that T&HD’s operations at the N/A- Rosignol ferry routes used to make an average of $24M per month and workers benefitted from monthly bonuses.
The bonus went on for several years. “We used to get a reasonable bonus and it used to divide among the ferry and stelling workers”.
“Eventually, they cut out the bonus because the Marine Office wanted to come in for a share of the bonus and we who used to feel the pressure in the nights— it wasn’t easy, so the offer was just stopped.”
Ret’d Captain Maheshwar Sugrim
He explained that as the fuel prices continued to skyrocket, “it forced T&HD to raise the fares to $700 per car and $60 per passenger”.
“The amount of money they (T&HD) were making at that time on the ferries when the fare was $500, equivalent to $24M per month…the fares went up to $700 per car and the amount of men Transport had to pay, was 50 men and you had the stelling workers and then they had to buy fuel, so I’d like to explain to the public and ask how much fuel they buy for the bridge— none— and how many maintenance men they have on the bridge.”
“I don’t know how many workers they have on the bridge; I am sure it is not a lot of workers like T&HD had.”
“They (BRB) exploiting money from the poorer classes of people. My recommended price for crossing the Bridge should be $500 with a car,” he stated.
Sugrim believes that things might have been better if the ferry service was still in operation. Currently, only the Pontoon operates between N/A and Rosignol to facilitate workers and schoolchildren, and the vessel makes two trips per day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Even this service leaves much to be desired, since commuters frequently report that the pontoon “breaks down”, leaving hundreds stranded and having to resort to using the BRB and pay over $400 to cross with a minibus.
With the introduction of the BRB, a number of employees with T&HD were laid- off and sent home from both the New Amsterdam and Rosignol ferry stellings. The pontoon only needs five or six workers to operate.
Sugrim stated that the ferry service could have continued to serve the public well and in a more cost- friendly manner if they had better systems in place, “like do more maintenance on the ferry boats and not cause any breakdowns and those kinds of things like that.”
The BRB, he related, is “easy” but “the price is too much”.
This newspaper made contact with BRB CEO, Mr. Omadatt Samaroo, who promised to send figures requested to show the number of employees employed by the entity and the total number of vehicles using the facility,
He also promised to supply data on monies acquired from vehicles traversing the bridge for the year 2011. Kaieteur News has not received this information to date.
In the past, there was public outcry against the high tolls being forced upon commuters and drivers using the structure.
