CABINET Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon disclosed, yesterday, that, ever since the deal with Sithe Global closed, there has been “wide” interest from other sources to have the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project completed.
In fact, Americans, Brazilians, Chinese and Europeans are among others, who have already been indicating that they are interested in the scheme, he said.
Speaking at his usual post-Cabinet media briefing, at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown, Luncheon said:“There are new entrants to the field who have been making offers to their governments and saying that they could undertake it with a suitable design, even with the same design, or with a redesign, to make Amaila a reality.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Ramotar recently clarified that while “the deal with Sithe Global is dead,” this, certainly, did not mean that the hydropower project was going to be abandoned.
He said the “hallmark” of it is that every single Guyanese stands to benefit, be it directly or indirectly.
President Ramotar had given the reassurance that the money being used for the undertaking is not taxpayers’ but, rather, that of investors.
He said, however, that the misinformation being fed to the public is that it would be a burden on the coffers and on taxpayers.

Sole owners
The Head of State reminded that the Government going into a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOAT) agreement would have seen Guyana being the sole owners of the hydro-power Plant in years to come.

The economic benefit to the nation, the President said, would be tremendous, pointing to the investments as being zero, since the money already being used to subsidise Guyana Power & Light (GPL) would have been the same used to purchase power for it from the project.
The fuel import bill would have also been brought down, Mr. Ramotar stated.
He declared that the Alliance For Change’s (AFC’s) support for the project, while “too little, too late”, was “out of shame”.
The project involves the construction of a hydropower plant in the area of West-Central Guyana, where the Amaila and Kuribrong Rivers meet.
Electricity produced from it is to be delivered to the capital, Georgetown, and its second largest town, Linden, by a transmission line.