The long queues that have been registered in the last days in the international bridges that join Argentina with Uruguay redid the debate on the improvements that must be applied in the access points, where traffic jams are generated by the number of vehicles who want to cross the border.
In fact, the mayor of Río Negro, Omar Lafluf, admitted today in the afternoon that “Solutions must be sought from today to Monday”, with a view to this Easter weekend. Lafluf also spoke about the need to find a solution together with Argentina to improve logistics between countries, such as, in this case, the San Martín bridge, which connects Fray Bentos with Gualeguaychú.
One of the measures adopted to speed up traffic at these points was stop asking passengers for the affidavit to enter Uruguay. The measure implemented by the Executive Branch will apply until this Monday, April 18, only at land borders.
In this context, the head of the National Directorate of Migration of Río Negro, Lucas Graziani, said in an interview granted Telemundo (channel 12) that border delays went from 40 seconds (pre-pandemic) to 5 minutes per vehicleas a result of the fulfillment of “support tasks for the Ministry of Public Health”. “If there are 60 cars, you have 240 minutes”, estimated the hierarch.
The passengers “spend four hours in line, you ask for the vaccines and they have everything in the bag,” Graziani lamented.
The chief also admitted that part of the delay is also due to the fact that at that checkpoint they are operating eight cabins instead of twelvedue to a building reform that was used in the place.
According to the latest report from the National Directorate of Migration, from April 8 to 13 the departure of 114,577 passengers from Uruguay has been detected. Of the total, 47,402 passengers have passed through the dry borders located on the coast. In Paysandú, 18,070 discharges (16%) were registered; by Jump 15,006 (13%); by Fray Bentos 14,326 (13%).
The rest of the passengers left the country through Colonia (19%); through the Carrasco International Airport (11%); by Rio Branco (10%); Chui (7%); the Port of Montevideo —Buquebus— (6%); Rivera (3%) and for other points, 2%.
