8.5 million passengers used Vreed-en-Hoop to Georgetown river taxis in 2024

…Govt to dredge river, roll out suite of upgrades to stellings

Almost nine million repeat passengers have been recorded transiting on river taxis between Vreed-en-Hoop and Georgetown last year, thus the Government of Guyana will be taking steps to clear the river of encumbrances such as logs in order to enhance the travel experience.

On Wednesday, President Dr. Irfaan Ali met with boat operators at Vreed-en-Hoop, and discussed his government’s plans for them. He listened to their concerns and also revealed that as many as 8.5 million passengers were recorded last year using the Vreed-en-Hoop to Georgetown route.
“You might not be aware of this, but this transit between Vreed-en-Hoop and Georgetown, this operation, last year 8.5 million people moved between this transit. That is the number of persons y’all moved last year, 2024, 8.5 million movement of persons between Georgetown and Vreed-en-Hoop,” the President said.
With this number in mind, President Ali noted the importance of the Government investing in the facility and improving the standards.
According to the Head of State, a number of measures will be undertaken, including dredging of both channels.
“We have to change the standards and invest in the facilities here for the passengers and also the operators. And there are seven key areas that were identified, one is the dredging of both channels; that is, in Stabroek area and here,” he detailed.
“And then you have the piles. At the Georgetown side, that caused damages to a number of boats. You requested cameras on both sides. Security cameras. Then you have the hut for the monitor on the Georgetown side. The landing in Georgetown to be extended to the basin. But if we dredge, that would help that a lot,” the Head of State added.
As a matter of fact, at least one of these measures, the dredging of the river, would start on Wednesday evening. This will be with the aim of removing encumbrances such as logs from the river, taking advantage of the fact that Thursday is a holiday.
“What I’ve decided, tomorrow being a holiday where you have less traffic, is for us to mobilize both from the private and public sector, the dredges that we have. We’ll use the Bridge dredge, starting tonight. We’ll use the bridge dredge in the Stabroek area, starting at the low tide today. Thomas is going to mobilize someone to remove all the logs on that side.
“So, by weekend, we should have all those logs removed. They’re going to work all night tonight, tomorrow night, on the channel at Vreed-en-Hoop. On the channel on this side, we’ll mobilize the private sector dredge this afternoon. They’ll start working tonight, and work through tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night,” President Ali also said.
Earlier this year, President Ali had announced that as part of efforts to optimally utilize the limited port spaces along the Demerara River, plans are in the works to transform the Vreed-en-Hoop Stelling into a modern port facility.
The Head of State was at the time speaking about the unprecedented development taking place across Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), especially the Vreed-en-Hoop surroundings, where the historic US$300 million Vreed-en-Hoop Shore Base Facility was commissioned just last month to support the country’s maritime and transport sector.
Funds have already been set aside in the Public Works Ministry’s $9.9 billion River Transport budget for works to be done on the stelling.
Additionally, money has been earmarked to support the dredging of the Demerara River channel to ensure safe passage of larger ships as well as the removal of wrecks and obstructions from both the Demerara and Essequibo rivers.