PRESIDENT, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali recently commissioned the Mocha to Diamond interlink road on the East Bank of Demerara, which would not only serve as an auxiliary route for commuters but also as a transit point for hundreds of workers. Roughly 400 acres of land will be developed for industrial and commercial development which could create hundreds of job opportunities.

This new road link for many is a dream come true, especially for motorists and commuters who have had to endure the daily and agonising hassle to get to and from work in the City. And even though the stretch of road is only limited at the moment to the Mocha-Diamond corridor, it will bring great relief to those who commute on that new stretch of road. It will also result in increased levels of productivity having regard to the countless number of hours lost in traffic.

Soon to be commissioned is the Eccles to Mandela link which will take the bypass road all the way from Mandela Avenue to Eccles, reaching all the way to the Diamond-Grove Housing Scheme which is among the largest housing schemes in the country. The new road link will cut through several other housing development schemes, in what was hitherto abandoned fields but which has now been transformed to a vibrant housing scheme.

That is indeed visionary thinking on the part of President Ali, long before he assumed the role of Executive President in August last year. That project is the brainchild of the President years ago when he was Minister of Housing and Water under the previous PPP/C administration. In fact, foundation works on the Mocha-Diamond project had already commenced but was abandoned after the APNU+AFC took office in May 2015. Now that the PPP/C is back in the seat of government, these works are now fully back on stream, and in the case of the Mocha-Diamond link, is already completed. Very soon, the Mandela-Eccles link will be completed paving the way not only for a new bypass road but more fundamentally a new development corridor which will result in the growth and expansion of new business and commerce and hundreds, if not thousands, of new jobs. Job creation and development of lands for housing purposes are high on the PPP/C’s development agenda and these new projects are a step closer in the realisation of that objective.

According to President Ali, the new road link is much more than a physical infrastructural link. It also has tremendous sociological value linking peoples and communities and creating new opportunities for livelihoods and opportunities. The housing communities of Mocha, Herstelling, Providence, Prospect, Little and Greater Diamond and Grove will all be linked in a road network that will have positive impacts on peoples and communities. In fact, there are plans to have safe and secure footpaths along the new stretch of road to allow for fitness and wellness, which, according to President Ali, is part of a growing health awareness culture among the Guyanese people.

The road network is part of a broader plan by the PPP/C administration to integrate the communities all along the East Coast of Demerara and the East Bank of Demerara by way of a new road corridor initially from Ogle to Eccles and then all the way to Timehri. As it currently stands, there is only one road link to Timehri which could pose logistical challenges especially in the context of a growing economy and accelerated development. These developments are part of the PPP/C Manifesto promises to the people of Guyana and the rolling out of these new developments forms part of a developmental platform envisaged by the PPP/C administration to enhance the quality of life of the Guyanese people.

The Guyanese Head of State took the opportunity to urge persons to use the road safely and indicated that there would be technological infrastructure to monitor the use of the road by motorists, in addition to several police outposts along the road corridor. The next phase, the President said, is to connect cameras to those outposts which would be in a position to capture not only speeding motorists but also whether or not there is adherence to safety requirements. Amendments to the law will be made to allow for electronic tickets and enforcement.

These road infrastructure are built at enormous cost to taxpayers but they are necessary to move the country forward to higher levels of infrastructural and technological developments. The estimated cost for the East Bank road corridor is $16 billion. Guyana, under the leadership of President Ali is gradually moving away from the past stigma as a poor and underdeveloped country, and the foundation is now being laid for economic take-off to more advanced levels of growth and prosperity.