…to ink agreement for Linden/Mabura road
THE Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will be responsible for overseeing the paving of the Linden/Mabura road and a team from the bank will be in Guyana this week when the formal agreement on the project and others funded by the bank, could be finalised.
This was disclosed on Thursday evening by Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, during the 2017 Budget debate. He said that the bank officials will be in Guyana from December 12-15.
The project, which is the first in a step to pave the critical economic link between the coastland and the Rupununi, will be undertaken through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said soon after presenting the budget late last month.
Jordan stated also that in 2017, the government should be in a position to commence the multimillion dollar project paving the way for the other stretch from Mabura Hill to Lethem to be upgraded.
“Once we get that road finished, we could get connectivity throughout Central America (and) South America. You can probably leave Guyana and drive straight to the United States once you could have that connectivity,” he posited. When asked about the amount of money needed to execute the project, the Finance Minister said full disclosure will be made when an agreement has been reached.
“We have an idea how much it will cost, but we don’t want to excite anybody or pre-empt the donor…some of these negotiations are delicate,” he said. However, it was noted that part of the money will be acquired through a grant and the other part through a loan. During his budget presentation, the Finance Minister said the country has waited for over five decades to bridge the coastal and hinterland divide, and for the creation of national and hemispheric inter-connectivity via the Linden to Lethem corridor.
Despite criticisms by Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo that the road should not be paved at this point in time, executive member of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Ramesh Dookhoo, said the paving of the road from Linden to Lethem was among requests on the PSC’s wish list.
“The Linden to Lethem road is a huge priority for the private sector. We see that road as one which will generate economic activities through the length and breadth of Guyana,” Dookhoo told the Guyana Chronicle.
On Thursday evening, the Minister of Public Infrastructure told the National Assembly that the CDB will oversee another project, which is the construction of a bridge across the Kurupukari River, called the “Kurupukari Crossing.”
The bank will also fund a number of other projects in the new year, including funding for the improvement of a section of roadway from Vreed-en-Hoop to Hydronie, West Coast Demerara, approximately 30.7 km long.
Patterson said that at the end of November, the project was 58% completed with its completion date set for December 2018. He noted that the 2017 budget has provisions of $2.335B for completion of these works. The Barbados-headquartered CDB will also fund sea defence projects here in 2017. Patterson explained that the Sea and River Defence Resilience Project outlines the various project components programmed for implementation during the period 2017 – 2018.
He said that the project had commenced in the last quarter of 2015, when all the requisite pre-conditions were met.
“The envisaged benefits include flood-protection infrastructure; capacity- building within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure; and community awareness and education,” he explained.
Sea defence works will be conducted in Regions Two, Three, Four, and Six. According to Patterson, the budget allocation for continuation of the sea defence project is $980M, with its completion date slated for December 2018.
