Facing a number of questions from the opposition, Alliance For Change, over his recent announcement of plans to build a new Berbice River Bridge, President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday defended his plan to build a new bridge across the Berbice River sixteen years since the last one was built.

During a visit to the North Pakaraima community, and in the company of his Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Tourism, the President accused the opposition of fighting down his development plans and not being supportive of development in the country. He accused member of the opposition of being hypocritical.

“These hypocrites can’t help themselves. Anything developmental, they gotta stop, anything in certain regions, they have to stop. They believe that any investment in these regions is a political investment and then they try to lie to the people”, President Ali said.

The PPP Civic Government holds the majority in the National Assembly and has been using that majority to approve funding for major infrastructural projects.

The Alliance For Change in its statement questioning the announced plan to build a new Berbice Bridge said while it is not opposed to development and modernization, it believes there is the need for responsible governance, especially when it involves substantial public expenditure.

The AFC has called on the Government to immediately release the findings of any pre-feasibility study that has informed the decision to proceed with this new bridge project, adding that it also expects that a comprehensive feasibility study and an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) will be conducted and made available to the public before any further steps are taken with the plan to build a new Berbice River Bridge.

President Ali said the Opposition “is trying to create an environment in which development must be stymied or blocked. They don’t care about the country, they don’t care about development. What they care about is political expediency, and they have no ideas”.

The President explained that with a number of major development projects earmarked for the Berbice region including a deep water harbour, he believes a fixed Bridge across the Berbice river, as against the current floating Bridge, is needed.

The new Berbice River Bridge is to be modeled after the new Demerara Bridge, which is currently under construction.

The Alliance For Change reminded that the existing Berbice Bridge, which cost US$40 million, was initially criticized for its questionable feasibility, adding that the then-PPP government resorted to a controversial public-private partnership (PPP) model, aspects of which are still under judicial review.

The AFC is urging the Government to avoid repeating past mistakes by ensuring that the new project is based on solid, transparent, and publicly available data.

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