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Guyana Transportation
![[PDF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pdf.gif)
Figure 5. Guyana: Transportation System, 1991
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Building a new road through the dense vegetation of the interior
Courtesy Leslie B. Johnson, Sr.
Next to the poor supply of electricity, the most serious
infrastructure problem was the poor transportation system
(see
fig. 5). Travel and transport were difficult within Guyana, and there
was only one surface link to a neighboring country, a newly paved
road to Brazil. The domestic transportation system was minimal:
only 500 kilometers of paved roads (mostly along the coast), 5,000
kilometers of gravel roads, 1,500 of earthen roads, and about
28,000 vehicles. Buses were aging and needed to be replaced.
Commuting costs for workers were often high enough to dissuade them
from leaving home each day. Only the lower portions of the major
rivers--Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice--about 1,000 kilometers in
all) were navigable, making transport of bauxite and sugar a
challenge. Air service within the country was sporadic. The
country's two ports, at Georgetown and at New Amsterdam, were also
in need of improvement. An Economist report about travel to
the Marudi Mountain gold mine in the most southern part of Guyana
aptly depicted the extremes of inland travel: the trip required a
ride on a small plane from Timehri Airport (weather Georgetown) to
Lethem, followed by a six-hour jeep ride (rain permitting) to
Aishalton, and then an eleven-hour walk to the mine.
Guyana's transportation system showed signs of improvement in
the early 1990s, when foreign investment and foreign aid began
returning to the country. Brazil financed construction of a 300-
kilometer road from Kurupukari, in central Guyana, to Lethem, on
the western border with Brazil, giving access to much of the
interior. The government entered into a joint venture with British
Airways) to establish a company called Guyana Airports Limited that
would operate and develop Timehri Airport and other airports. Air
transportation also took a step forward in 1990 when Varig,
Brazil's national airline, started weekly air service from Timehri
to Boa Vista and Manaus in northern Brazil. Most air travel outside
of the country went through Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, or through
Caracas, Venezuela.
Data as of January 1992
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![[JPEG]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/guyana/gy03_08b.jpg)
