Procurement of luminaries and wallaba posts to facilitate the installation of 358 road lights along identified sections of the West Coast Demerara (WCD) and East Bank Essequibo (EBE) highway has been started by the executing contractor, Cummings Electrical Company Limited.

The six-month contract for the works, valued at $58,887,245, was signed on October 30th last, and is being executed under the Road Safety Component of the Transport Infrastructure Rehabilitation Programme with funding provided by the Government of Guyana and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The luminaries, which include transformers, cables and lights, along with the arms, are being sourced overseas, while the wallaba posts to serve as the support are being procured locally, according to this newspaper source.

Cummings Electrical, it was noted, has already completed a significant amount of its preparatory works; and judging from the pace so far, it is anticipated that 10 per cent of the actual installation would be completed before year-end.

The lights, of 250 watts each, are to be installed along the populated areas between New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop on the West Coast of Demerara and Good Hope on the East Bank of Essequibo.

According to a distribution breakdown, 44 of the road lights are to be placed between New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop and Crane Village; 110 between Hague Village and Stewartville; 84 between Uitvlugt and De Kindren, all villages on the West Coast of Demerara; and the remaining 120 between the villages of Zeelugt and Good Hope on the East Bank of Essequibo.

The wallaba posts will be planted 50 metres apart and the bulbs mounted 30 feet from ground level, with a galvanised arm extending nine feet into the roadway as its support base.

The less populated areas along the highway will benefit from illuminative road markings to done using a thermoplastic tape that has a high degree of reflectivity and can be easily seen in the dark.

Meanwhile, other works involving the installing of road lights are also being done on the Essequibo Coast and on the West Bank of Demerara.

At Anna Regina on the Essequibo Coast, the works there, which are about 80 per cent complete, involves the installation of Triple X cables and requires the input of the Guyana Power and Light.