MINISTER of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has instructed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Mr. Lionel Wordsworth to write all the contractors involved with the Hope Canal project and

let them know that the ministry will pursue liquidated damages in accordance with the contract if deadlines are not met.
Making the disclosure at a press conference, in his Regent Road, Georgetown office on Monday, the minister emphasised that contractors need to get more serious and only bid for projects which they can complete.
He said there is no problem with them undertaking several but they must have the capacity to finish each within the stipulated timeframe.
The US$15M Hope Canal, which is expected to be the answer to the annual flooding experienced in the Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary areas, during rainy periods, has four components, comprising the over 10-kilometre channel from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC); a bridge across the public road; a conservancy head regulator with three gates and an outfall at the canal’s Atlantic Ocean end that will have eight gates.
The canal is being excavated by the NDIA while B.K. International, DIPCON Engineering and Courtney Benn Contracting Services have been awarded separate contracts for the other three components.
Minister Ramsammy explained that works on the Hope Canal scheme, at East Coast Demerara, have not been stalled.
He said, in terms of the construction of the actual canal, which would include digging earth, work continues and the waterway from Crown Dam to the Highway has been completed.
According to him, this is the farthest it can go right now, from the northern side but, on the southern side, work is ongoing from Crown Dam to the Conservancy.
Ramsammy said, if contractors should fail to meet the deadline, penalties will be applied. However, he pointed out that no contractor has been hired to build the dam itself. Rather, this is being done by the NDIA with its own equipment.
Proving
“When the decision was taken that the canal construction would be done by the NDIA itself, a lot of people thought that that would be the part that would be left back, that we don’t have the capacity. In fact, we are proving that we can do the work,” he said.
The minister said it is the other contractors who are keeping this project from achieving a timely completion by the June 2013 deadline.
He said the building of the bridge, the main aspect of which is the drilling/driving of piles, has been moving very slowly and that is expected to be finished in November, this year, but he is doubtful that it can be accomplished by that time, at the current pace.
Ramsammy pointed out, too, that the creation of the sluice that would connect the canal to the ocean is also at the stage of drilling and driving piles.
However, the piles are being driven very slowly and the original excuse for the sloth of those two components of the project was the availability of piles, he said.
Ramsammy said the piles used for building the bridge should not have been an issue, since those are concrete and made locally by the contractor but, as for the sluice, the logs being available is, indeed, an issue.
He said, though, that the contractors assured that they have secured access to piles and, therefore, there should be no excuses. There was also the assurance that, once all the pile work is done by the end of November, the June 2013 deadline would be met.