The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delivered to the Amaila Falls Hydro Project access road component the draft Construction Permit, but the Ministry of Works must await comments from the donor agencies on the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment before further work is allowed. This is according to Technical Adviser to the Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Walter Willis, yesterday.
“We went through [the documents]. We have addressed the comments of both the Ministry of Public Works and the EPA. We now are waiting on the comments on the ESIA from the donor agencies,” Willis said, noting that the documents were sent to the agencies three weeks ago. “Once we get those, we will know whether or not to issue the notice to proceed to the project,” Willis said. He said that a decision on the issuing of the notice to proceed is about two weeks away.
The contractor for the construction of the Amaila Falls Access Road, Fip Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc, already brought to Guyana equipment for the clearing and preparation of the roadway in terms of sand and laterite. He said that the other set of equipment that Synergy Holdings Inc will bring into the country is for the application of the wearing surface on the road.
Willis said a team of consultants went into the project site to conduct hydrographic, engineering and topographical surveys for the bridging of the Kuribrung River, as contemplated in the project documents. Willis said staff of the Ministry of Public Service also accompanied the team of consultants into the site and they should all be out by this weekend.
Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Robeson Benn, had on August 18 announced the arrival of a quantity of equipment to be used for the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project (AFHEP) access road and expressed optimism that work on the project will begin soon.
According to Minister Benn, the contractor had indicated that the shipment includes three front-end loaders, four excavators, four dump trucks, two bulldozers and one scraper.
He reiterated that of the four bids submitted for the project, the evaluation team considered that Synergy had the best bid in terms of price and execution.
The bid from Synergy Holdings Inc was US$15,400,000, as opposed to BK International’s US$21,037,500; Roop and Ramotar Investments’ US$ 26M; and B&J Civil Works, in conjunction with Ivor Allen and Dynamic Engineering’s, US$16, 065,000.
On April 15 last, Synergy was given notice to proceed with the ground shooting and surveying exercise in order to provide the Ministry with details of the design, which has gone through two revisions, the second and final of which was submitted on August 6 and is currently being reviewed.