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– 62,000-plus passengers travelled on river taxisGovernment is targeting December 1 as the day when the vehicles crossing the Berbice River Bridge start paying lower tolls.Minister of Public Infrastructure,Cheap NFL jerseys China, David Patterson, made the disclosure duringRiver taxis across the Berbice River made over 2800 trips since being introduced in late September,Wholesale Jerseys China, Government says.a press conference, yesterday.Very shortly, Government will be sending the agreement for the Berbice Bridge Company Inc., (BBCI) to sign.Provided there is no further stalemate,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, Minister Patterson said that Government expects the bridge company to accept the $40M subvention and start implementing the tolls as of December 1.The agreement caters for the toll for passenger cars and buses to be reduced from $2,200 to $1,900, a 13.6 percent decline, while other types of vehicles will be reduced by 10 percent.The toll reductions had been a campaign promise by the coalition and were outlined in Budget 2015. It was expected to be implemented from September 1, 2015,NFL Jerseys 2018, but was not because negotiations between the Government and BBCI remained deadlocked.BBCI had asked the Government for some extension so that it could discuss the implications of the proposals with their stakeholders.In the interim, as the commuters awaited the reduced toll, the Government had implemented river taxis to ply the Rosignol to New Amsterdam route.Minister Patterson told reporters, yesterday,Cheap NFL Jerseys, that between September 21 and November 7, some 62,465 persons had used the boats. Of this, 11,623 were either students or the elderly.Government has said that its efforts to reduce the Berbice Bridge toll is part of a plan to alleviate the burden of the high fare for the over 150,NFL Jerseys Wholesale,000 Guyanese who live within Regions Five and Six that traverse the bridge to access education and health services, conduct business and travel on a daily basis.In total, the river taxis conducted over 2,800 trips across the river between September 21 and November 7.The bridge has been a sore issue for the opposition and Berbicians who have been complaining about the tolls.Built as a public/private partnership, the financing of the structure and how it ended up in the hands of a few private individuals with little say for Government, has seen the administration moving to increase its shares. |
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