–of housing, road projects

PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali on Tuesday spearheaded an impromptu inspection of some housing and road projects being executed in Georgetown and along the East Bank of Demerara corridor.

According to a statement issued by the Office of the President, the Head of State was accompanied by a team of technical persons from the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

Dr. Ali made his first stop in Cummings Lodge, Greater Georgetown, where 400 elevated houses are being constructed.
The housing project has attracted the interest of some 8,000 Guyanese thus far. Approximately 200 of the houses are expected to be completed by the end of October, according to the statement.

During his inspection, President Ali was informed that 13 contractors, employing more than 1,500 skilled and semi-skilled persons, are carrying out the project.

“During the visit, the President inspected the homes and interacted with some of the contractors on the ground,” the Office of the President related.
Dr. Ali made his second stop of the afternoon at the road link that is currently being constructed from Mandela Avenue, Georgetown to Eccles, East Bank Demerara.

The President’s third stop was at Providence, East Bank Demerara, where a public-private partnership is facilitating the construction of 200 flat houses, with 80 expected to be completed by the end of this year. Added to that, 55 two-storey houses are also being constructed.

On his last stop, the President visited the road project linking Eccles and Diamond, East Bank Demerara, where he inspected the work being done on both ends of the road. When completed, the road linking Mandela Avenue to Eccles and then to Diamond, is expected to significantly reduce travel time from the East Bank of Demerara to Georgetown, and vice versa.

The Eccles to Diamond road link is part of a phased project to create a bypass road from Ogle, East Coast Demerara to Diamond, East Bank Demerara. This aspect of the revolutionary project was pegged at $500 million, and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal, had told the Guyana Chronicle that the four-kilometre road is being developed on new, virgin soil, and that ongoing work includes the construction of two heavy-duty culverts and two heavy-duty reinforced concrete bridges, and the installation of street lights along the road. The new road is expected to open up new lands for housing and other economic activity.

This first phase of the project is being executed by the Ministry of Housing and Water through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

“It was designed by the experienced staff of CH&PA,” Minister Croal had previously said.
It was reported in August 2020 that the government had retailored the Ogle to Diamond bypass road project to conform to the original loan being provided to the country by the Government of India.

Speaking with the government’s Department of Public Information, Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar, had said that the new, four-lane project will first extend from Ogle to Haags Bosch, before being linked to Diamond. This move will save taxpayers approximately US$158 million.

“What was driving up that [project] cost was a number of connectors on the road,” Minister Indar cited.
Identifying the previously proposed connection at Mocha as a difficult area to execute works, the minister said the swamped terrain contributed to an astronomical increase in the total project cost.

“For you to do those swamps, the cost of the earth works pushed up the cost to $208 million. Remember, the Indian Government only had $50 million allocated to this project. So, we had to redesign the project to bring it to the original design,” Minister Indar explained, adding that India has accepted the new design for the road works.

Before the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) demitted office in May 2015, former President, Donald Ramotar, had made an official visit to India, where he received the commitment of a US$50 million loan from the Indian Exim Bank to fund the proposed bypass road.

When the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) took office the same year, the designs of the project were altered, drastically increasing the cost of the project to some US$208 million.

The loan agreement secured by the Ramotar administration was signed in 2017 by the then APNU+AFC Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan. With the recent modifications, the construction of the 20-kilometre road will be covered entirely by the US$50 million loan.