New road linking East Coast, East Bank Demerara
LINKING East Coast and East Bank Demerara is among the major developments set to take place as Government commences the process. Another plan in the pipeline is the building of an entirely new community along the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali disclosed last Friday.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the third International Building Exposition, at the Princess Hotel.
Building Expo 2012 will be staged under the theme ‘Embracing Standards – Building the Future’ from July 6 to 8, at the Guyana National Stadium, also at Providence, East Bank Demerara.
The feature address at the Friday function was delivered by President Donald Ramotar.
Talking about the roadway to be created, Ali said: “On the East Coast Demerara, this is an interesting development. We are commencing the process of bridging the East Coast with the East Bank through the backlands.
“We have started that with our investment on the East Bank where we have opened up more than 5,000 acres of land. We have already distributed more than 2,500 house lots and we are working, presently, on a further 2,000 house lots,” Ali outlined.
In addition, he said, they have already distributed some 40 industrial and commercial plots in that area.

ALREADY CONNECTED
“Very quietly, we have opened up a road 25 feet wide on the third entrance of the Stadium to the first cross dam, so all we have to do now is build the collectors’ lane, from Diamond to the East Coast and we are already connected to the other main highway.
Elaborating on the process, he said: “So the East Coast is a very special development for us this year. It is very challenging for our engineers and our planners and I want to recognise the hard work of my engineers and planners here.
“What we are doing is we are commencing the expansion at Ogle and Cummings Lodge/Industry in a way that we are going to link it up with Eccles and Herstelling.
“That is about a 1,000 acres of land that we will have to open up and prepare. The road cost and the bridging is about $150M and we are, presently, in the process of designing that,” he informed.
Continuing, he said: “The road will go all the way around the new Haags Bosch Solid Waste facility and come around back, hopefully, to link up to Industry, Cummings Lodge and Ogle area. So this is a vision that the Ministry of Housing is very, very proud to lead.”
Ali said: “The building and construction sector, as we advance into the future, would require the Government and the Private Sector to look at the fiscal incentive schemes.
“We need to continue the aggressive, strategic and sensible infrastructure expansion and spending on which the government has embarked.”
Ali noted that, from the last building expo to now, there has been an expanded public/private partnership, with more than 15 Private Sector partners involved in housing.
He said those private developers together would have spent more than US$17M last year, in the Housing Sector alone, while the Government expended at least $9 billion.
Minister Ali said that, the next five years, government would see the development of a further 30,000 house lots.
He assured the President: “We are not going to shy away from our target regardless of any circumstances that may be before us. There is nothing that is going to stop us, in the Ministry of Housing, from accomplishing that 6,500 new house lots target that you have set.”
The Housing and Water Minister said, at Kilcoy, in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne), 220 acres of land will be developed for 900 lots, while Hope/Experiment, at East Coast Demerara, will see 120 acres developed for 500 lots.
Ali said the East Bank development will see 2,000 lots added to the stock this year and Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, will see 450 lots; Bartica 500 lots and Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast, 350 lots.

AREA TARGETED
One more plan on which he expounded is the building of an entirely new community and the area targeted is the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
“I am confident that Guyana is going to realise this plan,” he stated.
Ali said: “The President would tell you that, since he would have assumed office, more than two large international companies came in to meet him on building an entirely new community and the area that we want to target is the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
“You know, the vulnerability that exists as a result of global warming, the vulnerability that exists as a result of changing environment and weather patterns, the threat to our coast is a real threat and is a threat that we must take seriously.
“Therefore, the Ministry of Housing will be working aggressively on finding the investors and on making the investments so that Guyana can have an alternative city and we believe that this city can be closely linked to our new airport on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway and this is something that we are working on and we hope we can achieve in the near future and in President Donald Ramotar’s term he can be proud of this new city arising and new cities gives rise to new thinking.
“And it is as a result of the vulnerability that exists that we chose our theme this year, ‘Embracing Standards-Building the Future’,” Ali said.
He reminded that the building codes have been established and warned that they are going to start a process of strictly implementing them.
“Your investment in the building and construction sector would bear profit and you should look towards this sector for expansion and growth,” Ali reassured.