Housing Ministry to spend $600M on Kilcoy Extension – Minister Ali
THE Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Housing and Water, will be subsidising, by almost 400 percent, the development of the Kilcoy Chesney Extension, at  Corentyne, Berbice. Last Saturday, together with officials from every critical department of the Ministry, the subject Minister, Mr. Irfaan Ali visited the area that will soon be developed for the purpose of locating almost 1,000 house lots of about 5,000 square feet each.
The approximately 200 acres is referred to as the Kilcoy Chesney Extension, Phase Two, as there is already another housing scheme closer to the main road in the community.
The Ministry is looking to spend some $600M on developing the location, adding to the over $6 billion previously expended by the Government in Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) over the last six years. This year, the Ministry hopes to expend  about $1 billion in the region.
The Kilcoy Chesney Extension housing development  is a low income scheme, which means the ministry will only be recouping $200M of the $600M invested from the sale of the lots.
Describing 2012 as an aggressive year for the Housing Ministry, Ali told media operatives, who toured with his team over the weekend, that everything possible is being done by the Administration to ensure that every Guyanese owns his/her own home.

INTENTION
He said it is the intention of the ministry to distribute a 6,500 house lots countrywide within this year.
The ministry will make sure that it is up to date with the demand in Region 6, from where there are about 2,700 applications, for the 2011 to 2012 period, so far.
Ali said the aim is to ensure that communities are literally bridged and, with the development of the Kilcoy Chesney Extension Phase Two, the expectation is that it will be partly accomplished.
A ministry official pointed out that the present location of the land for development is situated between two existing house schemes and part of the design and layout is to create the linkage.
A ‘one stop shop’ allocation for the area is scheduled for November 10 and, in the meantime, the ministry will be awarding several contracts to eight contractors to prepare the land in time for the distribution.
Presently, the ministry is in the process of preparing the contract documents for a legally binding agreement as it relates to their specific development of the land.
The ministry has given itself a three-month deadline to have the area ready and the contractors are to work with the same schedule.
One of the most critical areas of the development process will be the designing of roads, drainage and water infrastructure and Saturday’s visit provided for the identification of the challenges to the Chesney Extension.

OCCUPANCY
Another ministry official said the occupancy level in new housing schemes across the region has been very high, especially in the Kilcoy Chesney Phase One and lots in the Chesney Extension will not only be for persons in that area or along the Corentyne Cost but from all over Region 6.
Meanwhile, Guyana Water Inc (GWI) has indicated that, once the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) finalises the design for the new scheme, the utility will be ready to deliver, linking the supply to the existing network and bolstered by the presence of pump stations at Fyrish and Albion.
It is anticipated that the development of the housing scheme will add to the reduction of squatting in the region, on which some community groups are working along with the Ministry.