On Wednesday, 16 September 2026, former board chairman of Berbice Bridge Company Inc (BBCI) Paul Cheong confirmed that the private firm has completed the winding up of all its operations, and the iconic Berbice River crossing has been formally sold to the Government of Guyana for a total purchase price of GY$400 million.
Speaking exclusively to Demerara Waves Online News, Cheong confirmed that the full transaction has been settled: “It has been handed over to government,” he said, adding that the state had already transferred the full GY$400 million payment to the relevant stakeholders by Wednesday afternoon.
An industry source with direct knowledge of the transition, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Demerara Waves that day-to-day management, operations and maintenance of the bridge will now fall under the purview of Guyana’s Ministry of Public Works. Notably, most former employees of BBCI will remain in their roles to continue serving bridge users under the new public ownership structure.
The confirmation of the completed sale comes just days after official notices related to the wind-down were published in Guyana’s Official Gazette. These filings outline the timeline of the decision to wind up BBCI: in documents published 12 September, BBCI Secretary Amarnauth Singh revealed that company members approved a special formal resolution on 21 August 2026 to dissolve the firm, with the wind-up process officially commencing on that date. A second separate notice, dated 4 September, announced that chartered accountant Raan Motilall had been appointed as liquidator to oversee the winding up of the company’s assets and liabilities.
The acquisition of the existing bridge aligns with broader infrastructure plans the Guyanese government has already made public. The administration has previously announced it will construct a new four-lane Berbice River bridge at an alternative site in the coming years, a project designed to accommodate growing cross-river traffic driven by Guyana’s rapid economic expansion in recent years.
First opened to traffic in 2008, the existing 1.57-kilometre Berbice Bridge was originally built at a total cost of GY$8 billion. One of the largest private infrastructure projects in Guyana at the time of its development, the National Insurance Scheme was counted among BBCI’s major institutional shareholders for the entirety of the bridge’s period of private operation.